Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 11 Ariodante

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O NOTES OF THE MIND Music enriches the lives of virtually everyone it reaches. Its ability to expand the mind, as no other art form can, is a source of fascination for world-renowned soprano Renée Fleming, Lyric’s creative consultant. When Fleming teamed up with scientists to study the medical impact of music on the human mind, the results were nothing short of extraordinary. Fleming’s study, along with stories from Lyric Unlimited’s education programs, shows how music can literally mold our minds and change our lives. After the third-grader finished his performance at the piano and took a small obligatory bow to the sound of his classmates’ applause, Lyric Unlimited Teaching Artist Heather Aranyi noticed his teacher’s look of wonder – and shock. Aranyi is used to seeing the emotional impact music can have on listeners, especially students. Working with Lyric Unlimited’s elemen- tary school residency program, Aranyi spends 18 weeks each semester teaching students across Chicago to sing, act, and tell stories through the magic of music. When Aranyi was talking to the third-grade teacher after her weekly lesson with the class, she was expecting a reaction she’d heard many times before about music’s great influence on children. “No, you don’t understand,” said the stunned teacher. “ at student doesn’t speak. Ever. And you just got him to sing in front of the class!” Music is an astounding thing. It can help educate students previ- ously thought to be unteachable, converse with people thought to be lost to the conscious world, and influence parts of the mind that may be unreachable by any other means. e recipient of graduate degrees in voice and opera from Northwestern University and early childhood development from e Erikson Institute at Loyola University, Aranyi is an authority in how music affects the developing mind. As she describes it, “A lot of people think that when you do something like singing, you’re just doing something vocal, but music and singing have much deeper emotional and physical effects. When students are around music, many of them feel like they have a voice for the first time – literally and figuratively. I don’t know any other tool that is more powerful.” Music’s impact on students – and their education – is so special that after one of Aranyi’s third-grade students participated in the opera residency program, the student’s mother wrote Aranyi a letter of thanks for the inspiration that music created for her child: “ ese plays [operas] brought all the students together with happiness and made them so proud.” Ask teachers or performing artists about the power of music to change people’s lives and they’ll have countless examples and anec- dotes to share. But what is the actual scientific impact of music on an individual student, singer, patient, or someone simply trying to expand their life through music? e influence of music on the human mind is what inspired Renée Fleming to begin her own explo- ration of that question. In 2017, Fleming teamed up with the National Institutes of Health and Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to develop the Sound Health partnership. Sound Health studies and presents music’s impact on the brain, and what happens to people on a physical, mental, and neural level when they hear or play music. Using data from this study and others, Fleming has given a presentation called Music and the Mind across the country, including at the Kennedy Center. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH KYLE FLUBACKER By Nathaniel Hamilton Dr. David Jangraw, a scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health, joins Renée Fleming in examining the soprano’s brain scan. Heather Aranyi, a Lyric Unlimited Teaching Artist, explaining the concept of intervals in music. How music strengthens, heals, and shapes the human brain 12 | March 2 - 17, 2019