Bradley Vines, first Canadian university recipient of GRAMMY Foundation Grants Program funding
Bradley Vines has become the first recipient from a Canadian university, specifically McGill, to receive research funding from the GRAMMY Foundation Grants Program. The $40,000 (U.S.) award will allow Vines, who recently completed his doctoral degree in psychology at McGill University, to explore how people respond to visual aspects of a musical performance.
Vines has distinguished himself both as a scientist of human behaviour and as a sax player. Now, with his grant from the GRAMMY Foundation, he will further his research as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the human brain responds to movements of a musician. His work will explain, for instance, why audiences react so powerfully to the way Ashley MacIsaac strikes a fiddle or to the way Beyoncé sways her hips.
Vines and his colleagues have been breaking new ground by showing that music is a far more visual experience than we typically imagine. By looking at the brain's response to a performer's body, Vines will be creating a scientific explanation for the emotions we experience at the sight of our favourite musician.
"When you go to a concert, you're not just hearing the music, you're seeing it. This will be the first time we can quantify the aesthetics of watching a musician," explains Dr. Daniel Levitin, Vines' PhD supervisor at McGill and the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communication. "Music is a window into brain function and cognitive skill," adds Vines. "Music is unique in its ability to elicit rich emotional expressions and it is fundamentally revealing about human nature and the brain."
The GRAMMY Foundation is funding Vines' work to support research projects that study how music affects people. "These important grants represent some of our most vital missions," says Neil Portnow, president of the GRAMMY Foundation. "This research will lead us further down the road of defining the importance of music in education and its ability to enhance various therapies, as well as to manage the occupational challenges of music professionals."
Vines is looking forward to beginning his postdoctoral work at Harvard. He is hoping to continue to share his time between the lab and the stage, where he has appeared with pop groups, and jazz bands like La Internacional Sonora Calavera.
A total of 19 GRAMMY Foundation grants were distributed this year; four were directed to research projects and the remaining towards music preservation. The GRAMMY Foundation Grants Program works to administer grants each year to organizations and individuals to support efforts that preserve the recorded sound heritage of the Americas, as well as research projects related to the impact of music on humanity.
For an overview of the technology Vines will use to conduct his experiments, please consult the Radiology Info website.
To learn more about the Latin band with whom Vines plays saxophone, please consult the Sonora Calavera website.
About the GRAMMY Foundation
The GRAMMY Foundation Grants Program, with funding provided by the Recording Academy, works to administer grants each year to organizations and individuals to support the efforts that advance the archiving and preservation of the music and recorded sound heritage of the Americas for future generations, as well as research projects related to the impact of music on the human condition. Recipients are determined based on criteria such as merit, uniqueness of project, and the ability to accomplish intended goals.
About McGill University
McGill is one of the top ten research universities in the world, and has earned an international reputation for scholarly achievement and scientific discovery. The school is widely regarded as the leading intellectual centre for research in the science of musical sound, with over 20 full-time professors devoted to such studies. McGill has also created the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT), a $50-million endeavour that brings together researchers from music, engineering, neuroscience, medicine, science and psychology. Vines' doctoral studies were among the projects funded by grants from the Centre.
