The Amygdaloids Warburg Symposium Concert

The Amygdaloids are a New York band made up of scientists who shed their scientific garb at night and take to the stage with songs about love and life peppered with insights drawn from research about mind and brain and mental disorders. At the Friday night concert, the group will play several suites of songs about various topics, including the mind-bind problem, the unconscious brain, memory, and fear and anxiety. Each suite of songs will be preceded by a short discussion of the relation of the songs to mind and brain by neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux, the lead singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist. LeDoux is a professor at New York University and author of two widely read books, The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self. The lead guitarist is Tyler Volk, Professor of Biology and Science Director of the Environmental Sciences Program at NYU, and author of: ; Gaia’s Body; and What Is Death? Daniela Schiller was a postdoctoral fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience at NYU when she joined the band as the drummer, but is now an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center. On bass and vocals, is Amanda Thorpe, who studied neuropsychology at University College London and currently works in advertising. Amanda has an independent musical career, her most recent project being the CD, Promenade. The band’s first CD, released in 2007, was called Heavy Mental. In 2010, they released Theory of My Mind, which featured Grammy Award winner Rosanne Cash on backing vocals for two songs (“Mind Over Matter,” and “Crime of Passion”). The band’s third set of recordings was an EP called All in our Minds, in which each song had “mind” in the title. They are currently working on their fourth record, The Flip Side, which continues the catalog of “mind” songs. Donations will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Free and open to the public.