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.