Two months ago, August 4-6, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival celebrated its 40th anniversary season with an unusual ... and unforgettable conference, Music, the Brain, Medicine and Wellness. The conference was the brainchild of  Marc Neikrug, Barrie Cassileth, and Cheryl Willman, which brought together over 100 musicians, music therapists, neuroscientists, physicians and health caregivers to share cutting-edge knowledge about how music heals, impacts brain development, affects language ... and enhances empathy.

Day 1:  This day was led by several music neuroscience superstars including Aniruddh Patel (read about him in this NYTimes interview of Ani from a few years ago), Gottfried Schlaug (his website is musicianbrain.com), Laurel Trainor and many others, who shared new insights on Music and Language, Music and Cognition, Music and Behavior, Music and Child Development, to name just a few.

How could these neuroscientific findings apply to daily clinical practice?
That was to be the work of Day 2.  But before Day 1 ended, we were treated to a concert of Bach piano concertos performed with string quintet. The choice could not have been better - in Bach there is beauty and emotion found within the careful constructs of counterpoint and harmony.  In these lectures, we were getting a glimpse of the elegance and beauty of the human brain as it responds to music.

Day 2: We returned the next morning to an equally inspired day.  New knowledge and insights are being revealed by the work of music neuroscientists. If a "Picture is worth 1000 words"  then functional MRI and PET scanning is worth a million.

Our new knowledge of music's impact on the brain is being applied to patients living with cancer, Parkinson's, autism, and Alzheimer's. Because music involves so many parts of the brains, including memory and emotion, even people with dementia can be deeply affected...and sometimes transformed...by hearing music.Two of the presenters included this video in their talks.

Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter – to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way.                               --Dr. Albert Schweitzer

I've just spent a refreshing and restoring weekend in the Berkshires. My talk on Thursday, July 19  at the First Congregational Church in Stockbridge drew 35 people, some of whom were medical professionals, others who were musicians or artists.  My reflections on medical musicians and the role of music in healing alternated with movements from Bach's Goldberg Variations which were movingly and beautifully performed by Andy Jennings, Matt Dane and Norman Fischer. 
    I shared stories and thoughts of Dr. Albert Schweitzer.

Start early to instill in your students awareness that they are on this earth to help and serve others--that is as important to pass on to them as knowledge
 
Following the presentation, I had the opportunity to meet colleagues from the Berkshires, including Dr. Deborah Buccino, a clarinetist/pediatrician who played with the Longwood Symphony during her pediatric training in Boston, and Dr. David Elpern, whose thought-provoking blog is invites the reader to consider the role of the arts and humanities in medicine.
 
Thanks to Suburban Internal Medicine of Lee for sponsoring the event, First Congregational Church of Stockbridge for hosting, and my deep gratitude to David Anderegg and Kelley DeLorenzo for organizing the event.

Vermont is a beautiful, idyllic place. I visit there every summer to soak in the music from a variety of music festivals, appreciate the art, and revel in the rolling hills (ever notice how each hill is a slightly different shade?).

On the way home from each of these trips, I always make a point to stop in the town of Woodstock for an iced coffee, pay a visit to the jersey cows at Billings Farm and buy a new fish mobile for my pediatric office from the Yankee Bookshop.

But this summer I had a new mission: A friend called last week to tell me that he had purchased Scales to Scalpels at a bookstore in Woodstock. First I stopped at Shiretown Books, across the street. While they did not yet have the book, my visit prompted them to think about stocking it - the saleswoman told me her brother was a jazz pianist at Berklee who would love it.

Then I went across the street to Yankee Bookshop to inquire after the book.They had just SOLD OUT and were placing an order for more!

The conversation on music and healing continues!

Last night, on a beautiful spring evening, we celebrated the launch of Scales to Scalpels with friends and members of the orchestra with a reading/performance. The site was at Carriage House Violins in Newton, a space generously donated to us by Chris Reuning, an old friend and cellist of the Longwood Symphony.  The new space is stunning - a restored mill, with original pinewood floors and beautiful high ceilings. CHV has a 50 seat concert hall where the reading and performance took place

Thanks to Karyn Wang, Nancy Chane and Lisa Barr, there was more than enough sangria and delicious food to go around.

The reading itself included performances of Mozart, Ibert and Elgar played by the characters in the book.

It was so wonderful to share the evening with old friends; Gerald and Aideen Zeitlin were there - now retired, they are the perfect combination of music and medicine. Gerald was an anesthesiologist and Aideen a violin teacher and conductor at the New England Conservatory who taught thousands of children (including my own) to love music.
Writer Robert Viagas drove up from New York to join in the festivities. A prolific writer, Robert has published 17 books for Playbill Magazine. His special talent was to successfully capture the characters of the passionate, fascinating medical musicians that made up the book.

Robert Viagas, Michael Barnett and Lisa Barr