The School of Music is taking a national leadership role by taking music research in new directions beginning this year.

The university trustees’ approval this winter of the establishment of the Music Research Institute and the addition of two nationally known music researchers to the faculty signals the school’s commitment to advance our understanding of music through interdisciplinary explorations ranging from neuroscience and the musical abilities of animals to music-related hearing loss.

“It’s about deeply understanding the role of music in the human experience,” said Dr. Donald Hodges. “No other center is bridging the gaps between disciplines and bringing everything together. We want to create a more holistic approach.”

The center will focus its efforts in eight targeted areas: music education, biomusic, music medicine, music-related hearing loss, music perception and cognition, neuromusical research, cognitively-impaired musicians and music psychology.

Hodges was named Covington Distinguished Professor at the UNCG School of Music in the fall of 2003 and will lead the efforts of the new center. He comes to the school from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he founded the Institute for Music Research in 1992.

Hodges’ primary area of expertise is music psychology. In the mid-’90s, he collaborated in one of the first studies to map musicians’ brains using PET scans, and he is continuing this line of research with collaborators at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and lectures internationally on his findings.

“Music is such a powerful window into the brain. It activates so many parts,” Hodges said. Since Hodges began his brain mapping studies, he has discovered that the brain processes musical activity not in the conventionally believed “left-brained” manner, but though activation across several regions. Since he began studying the way the brain processes music, the amount of research and interest in the topic has exploded.

Joining Hodges in the efforts of the Music Research Institute is Dr. Patricia Gray, the School of Music’s new clinical professor and senior research scientist. She attributes part of the growth in music research to recent strides in technology, a trend that has especially impacted her area of study – music found in nature.

“Elephants sing in infrasound and whales compose and remember songs but humans have a limited range of hearing and hear at a slow rate,” Gray said. “Until technology made it possible for us, we just weren’t privy to these musical sounds. All this new information is opening up a larger conversation about the role of music in the biosphere.”

Gray studies the musical abilities of bonobo apes and is the co-principal investigator for the BioMusic Science Exhibition and Public Programs Project. The $6 million project, partially funded in August by a $2.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation, will introduce kids and families nationwide to BioMusic – the exploration of the musical sounds in all species including human cultures. An estimated 3 million viewers will see the exhibit, which will tour 18 cities in six years, beginning in 2007. The project will also have a spin-off children’s radio series, produced in partnership with the award-winning Boombox Classroom.

Part of the grant will fund the development of a school curriculum that interweaves music and science. Educational materials will be produced in collaboration with A+ Schools, a program housed at UNCG that encourages the integration of arts education across disciplines.

“We are advancing the cross-talk between music and science,” said Gray, who is also an acclaimed concert pianist. “By working together, we develop a shared understanding and a common way of talking about the same phenomena. These new ways of thinking and talking about music are expanding our horizons and deepening our perspective on the role of musicians. We see the center as a bold new direction for music study.” Gray will also give lectures and lead symposia on the UNCG campus as part of her position.

While Hodges and Gray will be major players in developing the new center, they will not work alone. They will encourage studies throughout the school, across campus and with institutions worldwide. Partnerships are already being formed with the Association of Science-Technology Centers Inc., the Science Museum of Minnesota, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Moses Cone Hospital. Currently, several studies are being conducted with UNCG’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the area of music-related hearing loss and tinnitus.

Hodges believes that the cumulative research and findings of the center will reshape music’s future as a critical partner for other academic disciplines.

“Most everybody understands the need for music classes at the elementary level. Yet only 12 to 14 percent of students participate in a formal learning setting during secondary school,” he noted. “One of the possibilities is our research will raise the profile of music as something that is absolutely critical to our lives and to our future.”