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Keith McCord ReportingHave you ever paid attention to the mannerisms of orchestra conductors, how they wave the baton or move to the music as they guide the musicians? A group of scientists is studying whether the conductor gets more from the music than the audiences do.
The music director of the Utah Symphony is the guinea pig. We're used to seeing Keith Lockhart in front of the symphony orchestra in formal attire, often a tuxedo, but he recently donned something new.
Keith Lockhart, Music Director, Utah/Boston Symphony Orchestras: "I was in a lycra jogging suit sort of a thing. It was very comfortable though, nothing went wrong and I didn't fry during the procedure."
A few weeks ago, Lockhart took part in an unusual experiment. A group of scientists from McGill University in Montreal measured his heart rate, body movements, muscle tension and other emotional responses during an actual concert.
Keith Lockhart, Music Director, Utah/Boston Symphony Orchestras: "And they wanted to see if there was a correlation, if any, of what I was feeling while I was working, what the musicians responded and how the audience responded."
Lockhart splits his conducting duties between the Utah Symphony and the Boston Symphony orchestras. He's passionate about music and definitely shows it on stage. The question scientists are trying to answer: when he's doing that, do we feel it too, and in what way? The experiment was conducted in Boston.
Keith Lockhart, Music Director, Utah/Boston Symphony Orchestras: "There were probably 30 wires coming off of the jacket, all into a little tail. They were attached to a cable, which ran to a bank of computers."
There was $80,000 worth of gadgets on Lockhart, five musicians and 50 members in the audience.
The scientists are still crunching the data from this experiment. As for Lockhart, he admits he's a purist, but was happy to take part in this novel research.
Keith Lockhart: "I know in my heart and intuitively how music makes me feel, and I know from conversation and description how it makes other people feel. If empirical data is useful in this, then I'm all for it."
Whether you're wired to a computer or not, Lockhart says there's nothing better than a live musical performance; there's no way you won't feel something, he says.
Last week, Lockhart proudly announced the release of a new Utah Symphony CD, the first in more than 20-years.
