Our Monday Noon Lecture Series Returns!
In 2026, our new BAM!! series is back, and it’s bigger than last year! This summer, we’re presenting four fascinating one-hour presentations by top researchers, whose topics range from innovative discoveries about the effects music has on memory and emotions to music’s therapeutic potential. Exploring the relationship between music and the brain is a longtime passion of Festival Artistic Director Marc Neikrug, who, in a statement about why he created BAM!!, said:
“I’m a firm believer that music communicates to us on a biological level and that the cutting-edge scientific research being done by these brilliant speakers will lead to a more thorough understanding of the immense power exerted by these beautifully organized sounds on our very being. I encourage everyone to attend these presentations to cultivate a better understanding of the cognitive and health benefits that music provides in addition to, or perhaps exactly because of, the pleasures.”
Each BAM!! presentation is held at noon over the course of one hour at St. Francis Auditorium in the New Mexico Museum of Art.
The Presenters
Monday, August 3
FROM PERCEPTION TO PLEASURE: The Neuroscience of Music and Why We Love It
Robert Zatorre, PhD
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, and Co-director, International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS)
Monday, August 10
RHYTHMIC ORIGINS OF HUMAN MUSICALITY
John R. Iversen, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behavior, McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, McMaster University
Monday, August 17
THE APPLIED NEUROSCIENCE OF MUSIC IN REHABILITATION
Michael H. Thaut, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Music and Faculty of Medicine; Director, Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory; and Senior Canada Research Chair in Music, Neuroscience, and Health, University of Toronto
Watch Last Year’s BAM!! Lectures
“How Music Captivates: The Science” by Elizabeth Margulis
“Music, Memory & the Aging Brain” by Concetta M. Tomaino, DA, LCAT, MT-BC
