“Music can help set the mood, but a collaboration between University of Arkansas at Fayetteville professors incorporates a new element into the concert experience: scent,” writes Jaime Adame in Tuesday’s (4/1) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock; subscription required). The chamber concert was part of a joint project between Moon-Sook Park, an assistant professor of music, and Han-Seok Seo, an assistant professor of food science. “ ‘It is a whole different approach to the audience,’ said Park, who will be singing soprano” in a program including works by Caccini, J.S. Bach, Messiaen, William Grant Still, and Leonard Bernstein. “Park said the pair have worked on the project for more than a year…. Both Park and Seo said they hope their work can be a positive influence on mental health, noting how stress can be harmful. They prepared a grant application, receiving university funds to help pay for the performance…. Park focused on the music…. Seo and his students handmade 450 plastic boxes and loaded them with scents.… ‘This project … was initiated for improving mental health in the Arkansas community, so I think—I hope—if this concert works, we can have a regular concert every year.’ Seo said.”
Posted April 4, 2014
