UA concert collaborates scents, song

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.

“It sounds crazy but interesting, right?” said Moon-Sook Park, an assistant professor of music, before a final rehearsal Monday.

Audience members attending the on-campus performance tonight will receive a necklace with a small scent box, a “very cute” economical delivery mechanism for smellschosen by Park’s collaborator, 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 during the show.

Seo is program director for the UA Sensory Service Center within the UA Division of Agriculture. Researchers study how senses beyond taste affect perceptions of food and overall quality of life, and Seo has written scholarly articles describing the way sounds affect perceptions of odors.

Generally, when two sensory cues are congruent they have a more synergistic effect, Seo said.

Park said the pair have worked on the project for more than a year. She saw the connection to music after Park broached the idea of a collaboration at a lunch for Korean faculty two years ago.

“Music, as well as fooditself, has definitely a great influence on a human being,” Park said. “So, the basic idea, it was very good.”

The concert is also a way to promote classical music, Park said, acknowledging that the genre struggles with popularity, especially locally.

But 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, which will include a second community concert Thursday. Park focused on the music, settling on a twoact performance exploring themes of introversion and extroversion. Seo and his students handmade 450 plasticboxes and loaded them with scents.

Soothing sounds will be presented in the first act, featuring pianist Skirmante Kezyte, who traveled from Mexico to perform alongside Park. A lavender scent willbe part of the concert’s atmosphere, complementing the song choices.

“The second part is all kinds of exciting music, mostly by American composers,” Park said, promising a few surprises for a lively performance. A citrus scent pack will be given out to the audience after intermission to accompany the more vibrant tone of the music.

“I’m not sensory scientist, not even close, and he’s not a musician,” Park said. But she said she hopes the audience will enjoy what’s presented and also future collaborations.

“This is a very, very firststep, and definitely I and Dr. Seo will learn to improve our next performance or the next project,” Park said.

The pair will perform at 7:30 p.m. today in UA’s Fine Arts Center of the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. Another concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at First United Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville.

“This project, as I mentioned, was initiated for improving the mental health in the Arkansas community, so I think - I hope - if this concert works, I hope we can have a regular concert every year,” Seo said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/01/2014

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