Activiteit
SG - Come to Your Senses
This evening concert pianist Ketevan Sharumashvili and food scientist Jaap Seidell take the audience on a journey through their senses, allowing them to experience the effect the senses can have on our emotions and memories.
Smells and tastes can trigger strong emotional responses. The complex interaction between food, taste, smell, brain, and emotions forms the basis of our eating experiences and has a profound impact on our well-being. Classical music has also a profound influence on the brain, emotions, and senses. Hearing is the primary sense involved in processing music, but the impact of music extends beyond what we hear.
Our senses are the key to our inner emotions and our connection to the world around us. In this program Sharumashvili and Seidell want you to experience how paying more attention to your senses can enrich your lives and improve your mental health.
Our processing brain
The perception of taste and smell takes place in the brain, where signals from taste buds and olfactory receptors are processed. The orbitofrontal cortex, an area of the brain involved in the integration of sensory information, plays a key role in this processing. This region interacts with the limbic system, which is responsible for emotions. As a result, smells and tastes can trigger strong emotional responses.
When we listen to classical music, different parts of the brain are activated. The auditory cortex processes the sounds, while areas like the amygdala and the limbic system are involved in emotional responses. Classical music can evoke emotions such as joy, sadness, tension, and relaxation. Composers like Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Mozart are renowned for their ability to convey complex emotions through their music.
About Jaap Seidell
Jaap Seidell is a nutritionist and has been Professor of Nutrition and Health at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam since 2002. He focuses specifically on nutrition in relation to growth and development in children, as well as on themes such as food policy and the development of interventions in neighborhoods, schools, and healthcare. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW), the Council for Integrated Agriculture and Nutrition, and a member of the Supervisory Board of the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) and the Food Education Platform. He has published over 500 articles in scientific journals, book chapters, and reports for organizations such as the World Health Organization. Together with Jutka Halberstadt, he co-authored four books on nutrition and health for a broad audience, including "Andere kost" (Other Food). He is in high demand as an expert in the media (television, newspapers, debates) and in recent years has written several hundred columns for publications including Het Parool, Ad Valvas, and Het Financieele Dagblad, and has contributed to numerous podcasts.
About Ketevan Sharumashvili
Georgian pianist Ketevan Sharumashvili studied at the National Conservatory of Tbilisi (master's program with Nino Mamradze), the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg (the prestigious "Konzertexamen" with Marian Migdal), the University of the Arts in Zurich (with Konstatin Sherbakov), and the Conservatory of Amsterdam. There, she received a special talent scholarship for her master's program with Naum Grubert and Jan Wijn. She has participated in numerous masterclasses with Paul Badura-Skoda, Boris Berman, Tamás Vásáry, and Cyprien Katsaris, among others. Ketevan has given solo recitals in numerous venues in Georgia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Ketevan has recently lived in the Netherlands and regularly gives concerts there as a soloist and chamber musician, receiving numerous awards and prizes. In 2022, she released a CD featuring works by Curaçaoan composers (Ne m’oubliez pas). For several years now, she has formed a duo with violinist Birthe Blom. In 2024, she released a solo CD titled "Connected" with piano transcriptions.