Music as a Pathway to Attention, Emotion, Creativity & Connection with Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir

Week of January 23, 2027

Music as a Pathway to Attention, Emotion, Creativity & Connection
Sæunn’s contribution makes the neuroscience of Brain Week audible and embodied.

Her three musical experiences parallel the Rewire → Renew → Reimagine journey, moving from concentrated listening, to emotional exploration, to collective creation.

Rewire – Bach Cello Suites
Deep Listening: Attention, Pattern & Memory
Three masterpieces from the 1700s by one of the greatest composers in Western music, performed on solo cello.

• Participants are invited to slow down and experience the extraordinary complexity of Bach’s music through a single instrument.
• The experience explores:
  • Deep listening — sustaining attention and noticing subtle detail
  • Pattern and memory — recurring themes, variation, anticipation, and resolution
  • Attention and perception — experiencing how focused listening changes what we notice
  • Music and the brain — the widespread neural engagement created by musical experience

Experiential Practice: Deep Listening
Participants listen for patterns, changes, repetition, tension, and resolution—experiencing attention as an active practice.

Key takeaway:
Attention can be trained.

Renew – The Inner Journey
Improvised Cello & The Hero’s Journey
An evening of improvised cello music inspired by mythic storytelling and Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.

• Participants encounter universal themes of departure, transformation, challenge, surrender, and return.
• The experience explores:
• • The inner journey — using story as a framework for personal reflection
  • Music in the moment — spontaneous composition shaped by the story, atmosphere, and people present
  • Emotion through music — experiencing music as a pathway into and through emotion
  • The relationship between music, memory, emotion, and regulation

Experiential Practice: Musical Reflection
Participants are invited to listen inwardly as the music unfolds, connecting sound with memory, emotion, imagery, and personal meaning.

Key takeaway:
Music can help us access, experience, and transform emotion.

Reimagine – Pauline Oliveros & Deep Listening
From Listener to Creator
An interactive musical experience inspired by Pauline Oliveros’ Sonic Meditations.
This session builds directly on Keith’s concept of Global Listening, expanding awareness from individual listening toward a shared sonic environment.

• Participants explore:
• • Global listening — hearing the larger sonic environment rather than focusing only on one sound
  • From listener to creator — moving from passively receiving music to actively shaping it
  • Vocalization, improvisation, and simple sound-making
  • Creativity and cognitive flexibility
  • Music as a pathway to social connection and shared presence

Experiential Practice: Collective Music-Making
Participants become part of the musical experience through simple exercises in listening, sound, vocalization, and improvisation.

Key takeaway:
When we become creators rather than merely observers, new possibilities emerge.

 

Æunn Thorsteinsdóttir
Cellist • Musician • Educator
Known for her “emotional intensity” (Los Angeles Times), Icelandic cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir moves fluidly between centuries-old repertoire and spontaneous creation. As a soloist, she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and Iceland Symphony, and appeared at Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie, and Disney Hall.  Her recordings include Marrow, a critically acclaimed interpretation of Bach’s six cello suites (“a front runner among recent recordings” — The Arts Desk); Vernacular, a collection of Icelandic works for solo cello; and Quake, a Grammy-nominated concerto by Páll Ragnar Pálsson. A passionate advocate for new music, she has premiered and recorded works by composers including Daníel Bjarnason and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir.  Sæunn is the founder of The Music Portal, a virtual concert space for her improvisations, and the creator of Soul Resonance, a 1:1 musical experience inspired by each client’s emotional landscape. She has held faculty positions at the University of Washington and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Artistic Advisor of the Við Djúpið Music Festival as well as the newly appointed Artistic Director of Tertulia, NYC. When not performing, you can find her in her homeland or traveling the world searching for the perfect pain au chocolat.  www.saeunn.com