How music and other creative arts can benefit individuals and society

Oct 19, 2019
  • 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM
  • Location:
    UBC School of Music, Roy Barnett Hall
    6361 Memorial Rd
    Vancouver, BC

This event is free, registration is not required.

Music is both personal and social. The music we enjoy reveals a great deal about who we are as individuals, and can enhance or diminish feelings of connection with others. But music also has therapeutic properties, and can even be used to treat individuals with neurological impairments. 

In this talk, Distinguished Professor Bill Thompson, a Peter Wall Institute International Visiting Research Scholar, will describe scientific research on the psychological, social, and neurological effects of music. He will summarise some of the music interventions that are now being used to treat a range of neurological impairments, and will argue that these same therapeutic qualities of music can be used to promote feelings of inclusion among all people who are isolated, marginalized or stigmatized in society. Drawing upon a range of musical examples*, he will identify the most powerful active ingredients of music and other creative arts, and show how they can nurture health, wellbeing, and feelings of belonging.

Bill Thompson is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Music Sound and Performance Lab at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. His research concerns the psychology and neuroscience of music, including cross-cultural music cognition, music and emotion, and the psychosocial and health benefits of music. He is the author of “Music, Thought and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of Music” (Oxford University Press).

*Special guest performances by members of the UBC School of Music faculty, VICO and EnChor Choir. 
This event is part of the Transcending Boundaries symposium and is co-hosted by: The UBC School of Music and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brian Health.