Music’s effects on nervous system

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Bowling Green State University’s College of Musical Arts will host a guest performance by neurologist Kamal Chemali and esteemed pianist Prisca Benoit.

The concert-lecture, “When Music Sings, the Brain Listens and the Heart Modulates,” will be presented at 8 p.m. Sept. 30 in Bryan Recital Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center. It is free and open to the public.

As director of the Music and Medicine Program at the Arts and Medicine Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Chemali studies the effects of music on the autonomic nervous system.

During the program, he will discuss the body’s numerous responses to musical compositions that resonate with the listener. Benoit will illustrate Chemali’s argument by performing various well-known piano compositions.

The program will include such works as “Klavierstucke Op. 118” by Johannes Brahms, “Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor” by Frederic Chopin, “Sonata in F Minor, K. 466” by Domenico Scarlatti, “Etude Tableau Op. 33, No. 6 in E-flat Minor” by Sergei Rachmaninoff and “El Puerto” by Isaac Albeniz.

Chemali began playing the piano when he was 7 and completed the Lebanese National Conservatoire program by the age of 17. Since that time, he has conducted numerous choirs and chamber orchestras. He attended medical school at the Lebanese University Faculty of Medical Sciences and completed his internship at Staten Island University Hospital.  

Benoit, who has been practicing her craft since she was 5, is a professor of piano at the Paris National Superior Conservatory. She has performed all over the world both as a soloist and as a chamber music performer.

She will also conduct a piano master class, open to the public as well, at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 1 in Bryan Recital Hall.

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(Posted September 14, 2009 )