Exploring Creativity with Anthony Brandt

Anthony Brandt is an acclaimed composer who is also a multi-disciplinary researcher. Dr. Brandt is a Professor at Rice University and co-founder and Artistic Director of Musiqa. Like many people worldwide, I had first learned of his work as co-author with neuroscientist David Eagleman, of the amazing book “The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World”. We started this episode with an overview of that book, and Tony’s passion for the importance of encouraging creativity at all stages of life comes through in our discussion of his research, compositions, teaching and mentoring. You’ll hear about how he and other researchers are using mobile brain body imaging, and how research into the arts are so important to the development of neuroscience. You’ll learn about his unique childhood, his mentors and approach to composing and teaching composition, his valuable insights on presenting new music and how integrating art forms can help to connect with audiences. We’re also shining a light on his recent album of string quartet music Meeting of Minds and LiveWire which are both collaborations with the NobleMotion Dance Company and the University of Houston Brain Center. Central to this episode is the importance of creativity, and different ways to investigate and explore that. Like all my episodes, you can also watch this on my YouTube channel, and I’ve also linked the transcript, everything linked here Anthony Brandt website Meeting of Minds Scene 9 video It’s a joy to be able to bring these meaningful conversations to you, but this project costs me quite a bit of money and lots of time; please support this series through either my merchandise store or on my Ko-fi page. On my Ko-fi page you can buy me one coffee, or every month For the merch, it features a unique design by artist Steffi Kelly and you can browse clothes, notebooks, water bottles and more, everything printed on demand. My newsletter where you’ll get access to exclusive information about upcoming guests. I have linked a few episodes that you may be interested in: Thomas Cabaniss Frank Horvat Dorothy Lawson of ETHEL Cheng2 Duo Nimrod Borenstein Ceara Conway Diane Nalini Please check out my back catalogue Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:22) book “The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World”, David Eagleman (15:48) project and album string quartet music Livewire and Meeting of Minds, brain body imaging, neural synchrony (23:21) Meeting of Minds: Scene 9 (links in show notes) (26:14) Anthony’s decision to become a composer, his process (31:52) Musiqa new music collective, diversity, community engagement, neuroscience (40:55) Anthony Brandt’s operas, librettist Neena Beber (47:32) connecting to audiences (47:55) other episodes linked to this one; different ways to support this series (48:50) connecting to audiences, mentoring composition students (56:43)the life of a composer, finding your voice, mentors Mel Powell and Earl Kim (01:04:11) research in Indonesia with Gamelan and neural synchrony (01:12:54) Chelsea de Souza, more research on improvisation (01:14:32) how the arts help science, advantages of mobile brain body imaging, research with elderly, the importance of mental flexibility (01:22:42) Anthony’s childhood, encouraging creativity (01:25:07) his course Creativity up Close