Brain-Scan Study Connects Music and Memory
Familiar music “calls back memories of a particular person or place,” according to Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist with the University of California at Davis. He says that when you listen, you may see a person’s face in your mind’s eye since familiar music serves as a sound track for a mental movie. Janata is the author of a brain-scan study designed to show how music triggers memories.
He finds that music can produce changes in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is located immediately behind the forehead. He conducted his study on 13 university students who listened to 30 popular songs from the recent past. The songs were in vogue when the students were between 8 and 18 years old. Students in the study signaled researchers when the music brought back memories from the past.
www.livescience.com/health/090224-music-memory.html
www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9008
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29372140/
Needy Non-Profits Cannot Use Endowments
Twenty-one states have decades-old laws on their books that restrict endowment spending, according to the Associated Press. A non-profit organization is often prevented from withdrawing money if its fund falls below the value of the original donations that formed the endowment. For example, if a donor gave one million dollars a year ago, the organization could use only whatever money the donation has earned since. None of the initial million could be touched, not even in an emergency. The endowment would have to retain what is known as its “historic dollar value.”
The North Carolina Symphony, for example, has the money it needs to keep playing, but it is prevented from using it by this law. Like the endowments of many arts groups, the symphony’s fund is the victim of a drop in stock prices and is currently worth less than the original donations that formed it. Legislation is in the process of being enacted to ameliorate this situation.
www.sacbee.com/827/story/1662907.html
www.mcf.org/publictrust/legalFAQs_endowment.htm
www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2003/0103/nv/nv3.htm
NYCO Announces New Members of Its Creative Team
On February 23, New York City Opera announced the appointment of two new members, Edward Yim and Steven Blier, to general manager George Steel’s artistic team. Yim is best known for his part in the interdisciplinary approach to programming at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Blier is an internationally known pianist and vocal coach. Continuing their positions with the company are music director George Manahan and accompanist Kevin Murphy.
“City Opera has pledged to carry its great popular tradition of innovation and discovery into a new era,” said Steel. “With this wonderfully talented artistic team in place, we are clearly on the way toward making good on our promise.”
www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/news/pressrelease.aspx?id=1575
listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0902d&L=OPERA-L&P=99169
Violin Returns in Record Time
New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow left a 1727 Guarnieri del Gesù violin in one of that city’s taxis, according to the New York Times. By the time he realized he was without it, the cab had already left. He called his credit card company since he had charged the ride. As he thought about the circumstances in the cab, he remembered that the driver had been listening to opera. He hoped that a classical music fan would return the violin.
Dicterow made arrangements to borrow another instrument for that evening, but it was never necessary. When the cab driver discovered the fiddle, he called the phone number attached to the case, the Philharmonic’s office. Just 30 minutes after the discovery of the loss, the Guarnieri was back in the hands of the concertmaster.
www.thestrad.com/nStory.asp?id=1166
www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/arts/music/20viol.html
Classical Music May Help People Deal with Recession
Principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko wrote an article in the UK newspaper the Guardian in which he insists that there is a constant demand for classical music that may be even stronger when times are hard and money scarce. He also notes that no orchestra will ever be immune from loss of ticket sales and that it will always be necessary for musical groups to keep up with technology.
He exhorts that school children of every level of society need to be introduced to classical music, that outreach programs must reach all sorts of community organizations, and that downloads should always be readily available to anyone who wants them.
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/27/vasily-petrenko-british-orchestra
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jan/11/classicalmusicandopera8
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Petrenko
