‘Chamber Music for Body and Soul’

A unique chamber-music performance is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 2, in UTC’s Fine Arts Center that is designed to highlight the benefits of music in therapy.

“Chamber Music for Body and Soul V” is the collaboration of several regional music organizations, says Dr. Martha Summa- Chadwick, executive director of the nonprofit Music Therapy Gateway in Communications Inc.

Musicians from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Performing Arts and Music Therapy Gateway In Communications will combine their talents for this free program to educate and entertain the audience on the positive therapeu- tic outcomes for motor, s peech and cognitive challenges using music as a direct conduit into the brain.

A pre- concert lecture discussing music and the brain is scheduled at 7 p. m., followed by a 7: 30 concert featuring Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major, opus 47.

Summa- Chadwick, a pianist, will be joined by Mark Reneau on violin, Dr. Josh Holritz on viola and violin, Heather Smith on cello, and Dr. Nikolasa Tejero on clarinet for the performance.

The first half of the concert features the Schumann piano quartet. Summa- Chadwick says Schumann wrote much of his music with the help of his imaginary alternate personalities named Florestan ( passionate and outgoing) and Eusebius (dreamy and inward), and was afflicted with what doctors would probably diagnose today as a severe form of bipolar disorder.

The second half of the concert features a group of lighter works by Paquito D’Rivera, Steve Reich and Astor Piazzolla. These pieces demonstrate the effectiveness of music in encouraging the body to move with t he rhythm, making it difficult not to tap a finger or toe along with the music.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Artists performing in Friday’s concert.