On 3 July 2024, 6 PM, we invite you to the lecture "How Music Can Make You Better" by Ph.D. Indrė Viskontas from the University of San Francisco.
The lecture will take place at the Vilnius University Aula Parva (2nd floor), VU Central Palace (Universiteto str. 3, Vilnius)
If you intend to participate, please fill in the registration form - https://forms.office.com/e/nbM8cXtWFw
Evidence of music has been found in every culture, every civilization and every era of humanity. Amongst the oldest human-made artifacts are bone flutes, dating back 40,000 years. But many of us still think of music as a luxury - a form of entertainment - a ‘nice to have’ but not an essential part of our lives. In this talk, neuroscientist and opera singer/stage director Indre Viskontas will demonstrate that music exists only in our individual brains, but that it has the utility of a swiss-army knife: a tool that can be put to many different uses. As such, it has the capacity to make us better by optimizing our minds, healing our bodies, rewiring our brains and connecting us to one another. In the midst of the 100th Anniversary of the Lithuanian Song and Dance Festival, Dr. Viskontas is leading an international team of researchers to track the impact of music on our collective wellbeing.
Dr. Indre Viskontas combines a passion for music with scientific curiosity and works at the intersection of art and neuroscience. She is an Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of San Francisco, the Director of Communications for the Sound Health Network, President of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity and a professional opera stage director. She has published more than 50 original papers and chapters related to the neuroscience of memory, music, and creativity. Her first book, How Music Can Make You Better, was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. She has hosted and created four podcasts totalling more than 450 episodes, including Cadence: What Music Tells Us About the Mind, the critically-acclaimed Audible Original podcast Radiant Minds: the World of Oliver Sacks and the popular science podcast Inquiring Minds, with more than 14 million downloads. She has directed operas ranging from The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat to the premiere of a new work telling the full story of Lady MacBeth. The Great Courses have released four of her 24-lecture series courses, including most recently, Your Creative Brain. She has hosted several TV and web series, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, PBS NewsHour, major radio stations across the US, including NPR’s City Arts & Lectures and the CBC’s The Sunday Edition. She often gives keynote talks, for organizations as diverse as Genentech, the Dallas Symphony, SXSW, TEDx and Ogilvy along with frequent invited talks at conferences and academic institutions. As Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board at the NeuroArts Blueprint, she works to promote research and public awareness of the impact of the arts on our health and wellbeing.