The 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival returns to the Washington Convention Center on Saturday, Aug. 24. The festival’s theme this year, “Books Build Us Up,” explores how reading can help connect us and inform our lives. It’s through books that readers can develop strong bonds with writers and their ideas – relationships that open the entire world, real or imagined, to us all.

Throughout the day, attendees will hear conversations from authors of various genres across the festival’s many stages.

Grammy Award-winning vocalist Renée Fleming explores the healing power of music in her latest book, “Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness,” on stage with renowned psychologist and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, author of “I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine.”

There will be a post-event book signing from 6:45 - 7:45 pm ET.

Please join us here at Barnes & Noble Upper West Side in welcoming Dr. Daniel Levitin celebrating the release of I Heard There Was a Secret Chord. Please contact our store to reserve a copy of the book to join the signing.

Levitin is not your typical scientist—he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today’s most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.

Music as Medicine: An Evening with Daniel J. Levitin

Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, from Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.

In his latest work I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, Levitin explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.

An Evening with “This Is Your Brain on Music” Author Daniel J. Levitin and Shannon de l’Etoile

The Books & Books Literary Foundation, the Community Arts Program, and the Coral Gables Congregationall Church are proud announce an evening with Daniel J. Levitin for I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music as Medicine (W.W. Norton & Company). He will be in conversation with University of Miami professor Shannon de l’Etoile. Community Arts Program Executive and Artistic Director Mark Hart will give the opening remarks.

Between Daniel and Shannon’s conversation and the audience Q&A, guests will be treated to a live musical performance by Dr. Eva Casado Ariza.

Books will be handed out upon entry.

Daniel Levitin: Music as Medicine

What are the deep connections between music and healing?

Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.

Join us as neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin shares some of the findings he put in his latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, in which he explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He examines the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression and pain.

Seattle Town Hall presents Daniel J. Levitin’s newest work: I Heard There Was A Secret Chord.

Have you ever thought about music not just as entertaining, but as something healing? Research suggests that the benefits of music can go beyond just jamming to catchy tunes. Neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin explores this idea in his new book, I Heard There was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine.

Levitin’s recent release discusses music as one of humanity’s oldest medicines and explores the deep connections between music and healing that have been found across the globe. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it can be one of the most potent therapies today. He gathers and synthesizes the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.

Powell’s City of Books presents Daniel J. Levitin’s I Heard There Was A Secret Chord.

Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind. In his latest work, neuroscientist and This Is Your Brain on Music author Daniel J. Levitin explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain. Levitin is not your typical scientist — he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today’s most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord (W. W. Norton) highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.

Wordfest presents Daniel Levitin’s I Heard There Was A Secret Chord.

Hosted by Erin Thrall

We've been eagerly awaiting Daniel J. Levitin's return to Calgary since he had to cancel his sold-out in-person show at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Lucky us – the best-selling neuroscientist, musician and author is returning this September with I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine. This mind-expanding conversation, hosted by Calgary musician and arts advocate Erin Thrall, includes a book signing and an audience Q&A.

Daniel J. Levitin in conversation with Stewart Copeland

Daniel J. Levitin is a neuroscientist, musician, and the author of four New York Times best-selling books, including This Is Your Brain on Music. He is dean emeritus at Minerva University, professor emeritus at McGill University, and visiting professor at UCLA. A saxophonist, guitarist, bass player, and vocalist, he has worked as a producer and recording consultant. He lives in California.

Stewart Copeland recruited Sting and Andy Summers in 1977 and founded The Police. He is an acclaimed film composer, and works across the worlds of opera, ballet, chamber, and world music. He has sold more than 60 million records worldwide and won numerous awards, including seven Grammy awards—most recently a 2023 Grammy for Best Immersive Audio Album and a 2022 Best New Age award for Divine Tides, a collaboration with Indian musician Ricky Kej. His film and tv score credits include Francis Coppola’s Rumble Fish, Oliver Stone’s Wall St. and Talk Radio, Silent Fall, Highlander II—The Quickening, The Equalizer, Dead Like Me, among many others. Copeland’s operatic works include two based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe—The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Hart; The Invention of Morel; Electric Saint; Satan’s Fall and The Witches Seed, his 2022 collaboration with creative partner and Pretenders lead singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde.

In his latest work I Heard There Was A Secret Chord, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.

Rotman Events presents Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin on the Therapeutic Power of Music.

Agenda:

6:00 pm - Author presentation with Q&A

7:00 pm - Following the conversation, we invite you to join us for a meet-and-greet with the author, book signing and light refreshments

I Heard There Was A Secret Chord Synopsis:

Neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin reveals how the deep connections between music and the human brain can be harnessed for healing.



Music is perhaps one of humanity’s oldest medicines as well as its most universal: from China to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and pre-colonial South America, cultures have developed rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, spur healing, and calm the mind. Despite this history, musical therapy has long been considered the remit of ancient practice and alternative medicine, if not outright quackery and pseudoscience. In the last decade, however, an overwhelming body of scientific evidence has emerged that persuasively argues music can offer profoundly effective treatment for a whole host of ailments, from Alzheimer’s to PTSD, depression, pain, and cognitive injury. It is, in short, one of the most potent and remarkably promising new therapies available today.