Museum of Science, Boston

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September 01, 2009

—Wild Music Celebration will kick off opening day with live performances

from around the globe, Sunday, October 4—

BOSTON—September 1, 2009—Whales compose, bullfrogs chorus, songbirds greet the dawn, and people everywhere sing and dance. What do we all have in common? Visitors to the Museum of Science, Boston will find out when the Museum opens its newest temporary exhibit, Wild Music: Sounds and Songs of Life. Presented Sunday, October 4, 2009 through January 3, 2010, Wild Music is a hands-on exhibit that explores sound and music in nature and in life. The Museum will kick off opening day with Wild Music Celebration, Sunday, October 4, an all-day event featuring live music performances from around the globe. Admission to Wild Music Celebration and the Wild Music exhibit is included with regular exhibit halls admission. The exhibit is fully bilingual (English and Spanish) and designed with an eye to accessibility.

Wild Music invites visitors of all ages to expand their understanding of what makes music. Through exciting, hands-on activities, they'll not only hear the music that surrounds them every day, but they'll see and even feel it too. They'll discover that nature is filled with "musicians" that create the distinct musical masterpieces to communicate with and relate to one another. And they'll explore how human music is inspired by the music of other living creatures—from tiny insects to giant whales.

Highlights of Wild Music include:

> Three different "Soundscapes" that invite visitors to explore sound and music that comes from the ocean, the forest, and the city. Visitors will learn to interpret spectrograms, or "pictures" of bird songs, learn what whale cries tell us about the animal's life cycle, see samples of instruments from around the world, experiment with how sound travels underwater, explore how music influences memory, and more.

> The Jamming Room, a soundproof practice studio where visitors can use pre-recorded audio soundscapes, animal voices, percussion instruments, and live vocals to compose their own musical masterpieces.

> The Bioacoustic Lab, where visitors can experiment with how the human voice works and how it compares to that of other animals, specifically birds. Here, visitors can explore a model of the human larynx and the bird syrinx, feel what it's like to communicate through an electrolarynx device using vibrations of the throat to "speak" and "feel" their voices through a set of vibrating metal reeds.

With its hands-on activities and music samples drawn from natural soundscapes across the globe, Wild Music invites visitors to celebrate every note of every player in the symphony of life.

Designed with an eye to accessibility

The vision of the Museum of Science is one where everyone can participate equally in the excitement of science and technology learning. Wild Music is designed with a special effort to make the exhibition accessible, particularly for those who are blind or have low vision, by incorporating tactile experiences, controls and graphics, narration in computer interactives, and audio descriptions. This exhibition is also accessible for visitors that are deaf or hard of hearing with visual representations of sound, by feeling sound through speakers in the theater, as well as video captioning. The exhibit is fully bilingual (English and Spanish), and as always, sighted guide tours will be offered for visitors who are blind or have low vision.

Complementary Programs

To complement the Wild Music exhibit, the Museum of Science will present several exciting programs. These offerings will enhance the experience of this exhibit and amplify the importance of music in our everyday lives.

Tuneful Treatments | Friday, October 2; 7:00 p.m.

Mark Jude Tramo, MD, PhD, director, The Institute for Music & Brain Science, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital; neurologist, musician, and composer; Suzanne Hanser, EdD, MT-BC, chair, Department of Music Therapy, Berklee College of Music; music therapist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; research associate, Brandeis University

Music not only energizes and calms us; research shows that it has powerful healing properties. Music can ease pain, lower blood pressure, and relieve anxiety and depression. It can even alleviate the symptoms of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, mitigate the side effects of cancer, and help premature babies gain weight faster. Join us for a fascinating discussion, punctuated with musical examples, of how the neurobiological foundations of music are leading to new treatments for a variety of health problems. Fee: Free.*Seating is limited. Passes are available to the public in the Museum lobby beginning at 5:45 p.m. on the evening of the program. First come, first served. Admission to this program is free thanks to the generosity of the Lowell Institute. Additional funding for adult programs provided by the Barbara and Malcolm L. Sherman Fund for Adult Programs and the David and Marion Ellis Endowment Fund.

Music on My Brain: A Conversation with Daniel J. Levitin and Rosanne Cash

Part of the Celebrity Science Series | A Reno Family Foundation Symposium | Wednesday, October 21; 7:00 p.m.

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, McGill University; director, Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise; author, This is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs; Rosanne Cash, Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter; author

How does music evoke our emotions? Why does music play such an important role in our lives? Join us for a noteworthy evening with neuroscientist Daniel Levitin and artist Rosanne Cash. Levitin is a rock star of science who has worked with Sting, David Bryne, and others. Cash, who has been performing, recording, and writing songs for 30 years and is the daughter of the legendary Johnny Cash, underwent brain surgery in 2007 and brings a unique perspective to music on our minds. Fee: $25, including post-program reception. *Tickets on sale to the general public beginning Thursday, September 3. Purchase tickets in person at the Museum box office, by phone at 617-723-2500, or online and mos.org/adults. Funded by the Reno Family Foundation. Additional funding for adult programs provided by the Barbara and Malcolm L. Sherman Fund for Adult Programs and the David and Marion Ellis Endowment Fund.

Genes & Jazz | Wednesday, November 4; 7:30 p.m.

Harold Varmus, MD, Nobel Prize winner; president, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Jacob Varmus, trumpeter and composer, The Jacob Varmus Quintet

What do DNA and music have in common? Nobel Prize-winner Harold Varmus teams up with son Jacob Varmus, jazz trumpeter and composer, to explore the ways in which genes and notes affect complex organisms and compelling music. This father-son duo compares cell biology to musical development through a multimedia experience that features a performance by the Jacob Varmus Quintet. Fee: $15. *Tickets on sale to the general public beginning Thursday, September 3. Purchase tickets in person at the Museum box office, by phone at 617-723-2500, or or online and mos.org/adults. Major funding is provided by the Richard S. Morse Fund. Additional funding for adult programs provided by the Barbara and Malcolm L. Sherman Fund for Adult Programs and the David and Marion Ellis Endowment Fund.

Wild Music: Sounds & Songs of Life will be presented at the Museum of Science from Sunday, October 4, 2009 through Sunday, January 3, 2010. Wild Music is included in regular exhibit halls admission: $20 for adults, $18 for seniors (60+), and $17 for children (3-11). For more information, the public can call 6177347;723-2500, (TTY) 617/589-0417, or visit mos.org. Wild Music: Sounds & Songs of Life is a production of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers. Major funding comes from the National Science Foundation, with additional support from Harman International Industries, Inc. and NEC Foundation of America.

About the Museum of Science, Boston

The Museum takes a hands-on approach to science, engineering and technology, attracting about 1.5 million visitors a year via its programs and 700 interactive exhibits. Founded in 1830, the Museum was first to embrace all the sciences under one roof. Highlights include the Thomson Theater of Electricity, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Mugar Omni Theater, Gordon Current Science & Technology Center, 3-D Digital Cinema and Butterfly Garden. The Museum is the first science and technology center to be approved as a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Reaching 25,000 teens a year worldwide via the Intel Computer Clubhouse®, the Museum also leads a multi-museum, $20 million National Science Foundation-funded nanotechnology education initiative. The Museum's "Science Is an Activity" exhibit plan has been awarded many NSF grants and influenced science centers worldwide. Its National Center for Technological Literacy® aims to enhance knowledge of engineering and technology for people of all ages and inspire the next generation of engineers, inventors, and scientists. The Museum is ranked #3 by Parents Magazine in its list of the country's "Ten Best Science Centers." For more information visit mos.org.