The Classical test Source For All The Performing, Visual And Literary Arts & Entertainment News
Orchestral

Medical Study Suggests Music During Surgery Improves Surgeon Accuracy

Lying on the surgeon's table with an anesthetic rolling through our veins is likely one of our most vulnerable positions. All bets behind us, we must trust the surgeon to do the work they've been trained to do and the medical staff to make the surgeons as comfortable as possible to better guide their steady hand. While a soothing session of music during surgery is still debated for possible healing effects on the unconscious patient, this new medical study by the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston suggests that music could be more beneficial to the surgeon in terms of improving performance.
By Steve Nagel

  • Mostly Mozart Festival 2015: Program, Schedule, Tickets and Minute Videos from Lincoln Center

    Alas, we are closing in on the final weeks of this summer's Mostly Mozart Festival. Fear not, though, Classicalites. The home stretch of Mostly Mozarts past there at Lincoln Center have always been filled with must-hear performers in don't-miss programming, and this 2015 iteration is hardly going out with a whimper. Case in point: the much-awaited American stage premiere of British composer George Benjamin's love-hate opera, 'Written on Skin.' Starring Barbara Hannigan and Christopher Purves in the viscerally erotic roles they, themselves, originated, outgoing New York Philharmonic music director Alan Gilbert leads the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in what's fast becoming the most revered English-language opera in some two decades.
    By Steve Nagel

  • David Byrne of Talking Heads Gives ‘TED Talk’ on Importance of Acoustics

    In his TED seminar, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne exhibits an acoustical awareness that might surprise his fans. Stemming from self-awareness in his own music that suggested mixed success across diverse music venues, Byrne stresses the importance of acoustics and characterizes acoustical engineering as "sound architecture," demystifying the long-held views of audiophiles that, talent aside, acoustics can make or break a performance.
    By Steve Nagel