Concert Activities

Join us for a special Wellness program of pre- and post- concert conversations in the Target Atrium, and lobby experiences in partnership with the University of Minnesota's Audiology Department, School of Music, the Listen Lab, the Center for Applied & Translational Sensory Science and the Auditory Perception and Cognition Lab. Focused particularly on the impact of music on health and hearing rehabilitation of cochlear implant and hearing aid users through live symphonic and chamber music, this opportunity of pay what you will tickets and general admission seating allows new audiences to explore how hearing music through live experience impacts mental health and wellbeing.

Led by community music facilitator Chrysa Kovach (USC Thornton School of Music and USC Keck Bionic Ear Lab), our pre-concert panel (University of Minnesota's Director of the School of Music and HA user Patrick Warfield, Professor of Audiology and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the College of Liberal Arts Peggy Nelson, and CI user and Sanford Bemidji Medical Center's Dennis Barrett) will discuss the benefits of musical activity, how assistive hearing technology works, and practical strategies for meaningful musical engagement using cochlear implants and hearing aids providing the possibility of music rehabilitation and appreciation after hearing loss. The post-concert talk will be a guided opportunity for cochlear implant and hearing aid users to discuss what they experienced during the performance and ask further questions about music rehabilitation.

Panelists

Dennis Barrett: Director of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center, Dennis is also a musician and cochlear implant user.

Chrysa Kovach: Community Engagement Program Administrator at USC Thornton School of Music and researcher at USC’s Bionic Ear Lab. Chrysa co-facilitates a weekly music appreciation session for cochlear implant (CI) users and works with CI users and musicians directly on a hearing rehabilitation program.

Peggy Nelson: Peggy Nelson is Professor of Audiology in the Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences Department, and is currently Associate Dean for Faculty in the College of Liberal Arts. She has been an active researcher studying hearing loss, hearing devices, and the problem of social isolation of persons with hearing loss.

Patrick Warfield:  Patrick Warfield is a musicologist and specialist in American musical culture. He is a professor and Director of the School of Music at the University of Minnesota, serves on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Orchestra Association and is a hearing aid user and musician. 

Lobby experiences are presented by graduate students from the University of Minnesota’s Listen Lab, Center for Applied & Translational Sensory Science and the Auditory Perception and Cognition Lab and developed by Heather Kreft, Michael Smith and Katherine Teece. Arrive early to learn about how we hear, how cochlear implants work, hearing health, and hearing loss prevention. There will also be an opportunity to experience music as it sounded to Beethoven--unprocessed and with simulated hearing loss. 

Lobby experiences developed in partnership with:

Heather Kreft, Researcher Psychoacoustics Lab, Dept. of Psychology, University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied & Translational Sensory Science and the Auditory Perception and Cognition Lab.

Katherine Teece, Research Audiologist, University of Minnesota’s Listen Lab. Teece coordinates research for the Listen Lab at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include listening effort and the psychosocial implications of hearing loss.

Michael Smith is a cochlear implant user and hearing advocate, a mentor coordinator for a cochlear implant company, and is on the advisory boards of several committees focused on sensory challenges. Michael was influential in bringing the merits of a Hearing & Music program to the Minnesota Orchestra.