Two days before performing Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs and other works with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, opera superstar Renée Fleming spoke on a panel about something close to her heart. America’s diva has become an advocate for the power of music, and how it affects our health, our brain, our healing — virtually everything about our being.

The conversation in Music Hall’s Ballroom on Wednesday was jointly presented by the CSO and the Lindner Center of Hope. Its participants included Dr. Chris Tuell, clinical director of addition services at the Lindner Center of Hope, and neurosurgeon Dr. John Tew, Jr., who was clinical director of the UC Neuroscience Institute for 15 years.

Fleming spearheads the Sound Health initiative as part of her role as artistic advisor to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She delivered an excellent lecture, saying her curiosity regarding the intersection of music and health was piqued when she noticed that researchers were studying music.

Her Sound Health project began at a dinner party that included Supreme Court justices Ginsburg and Scalia (who were famously good friends) as well as NIH director Francis Collins — who brought along his guitar, and they all began singing together. Besides showing that music has the power to bridge political differences, the evening prompted Fleming to propose that the Kennedy Center and NIH collaborate on researching music and health.

Because of the opera singer’s efforts, NIH has committed $20 million to this collaborative study. The National Endowment for the Arts has also become involved, and will announce a new research center this spring, she said.Read More »