Dr. Dan Levitin

BOOK INFO:

Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.

In his latest work, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.

Levitin is not your typical scientist—he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today’s most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.

BIO:

Dr. Daniel Levitin is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University, and Founding Dean of Minerva University in San Francisco. His research addresses fundamental questions in auditory memory, musical structure, and the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of musical experience. He has published 75 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Science, Nature, PNAS, Neuron, and Cognition. He earned his B.A. from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Oregon. He completed post-doctoral training at the Stanford University Medical School and at UC Berkeley.

He writes about health, science and medicine for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times , and appears regularly on NPR . He is the author of six consecutive international bestselling books: This Is Your Brain On Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind, Successful Aging, A Field Guide to Lies, and his newest book, I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music As Medicine, which hit the best seller lists in its first week of release. As a musician (saxophone, guitar, vocals, and bass), he has performed with Mel Tormé, Bobby McFerrin, Rosanne Cash, Sting, Renée Fleming, Victor Wooten, Neil Young, and David Byrne. He has produced and consulted on albums by Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, and has been awarded 17 gold and platinum records.

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Dr. Dan Levitin

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