classical music – NIH Director's Blog (original) (raw)

Talking Music and Science with Yo-Yo Ma

Posted on December 8th, 2016 by Dr. Francis Collins

It’s not every day that an amateur guitar picker gets to play a duet with an internationally renowned classical cellist. But that was my thrill this week as I joined Yo-Yo Ma in a creative interpretation of the traditional song, “How Can I Keep from Singing?” Our short jam session capped off Mr. Ma’s appearance as this year’s J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture.

The event, which counts The Dalai Lama, Maya Angelou, and Atul Gawande among its distinguished alumni, this year took the form of a conversation on the intersection of music and science—and earned a standing ovation from a packed house of researchers, patients, and staff here on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, MD.

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Tags: brain, cello, cerebral cortex, chamber music, classical music, dopamine, evolution, How Can I Keep from Singing, J. Edward Rall Cultural Lecture, music, neuroscience, neuroscience of music, Science, world music, Yo-Yo Ma