Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) Brain Chemistry for Lovers: Where the Art of Song Meets the Science of Love

The Question: Love. What is it? Why do we spend so much of our lives trying to find it? Keep it? Or get over it…? Brain Chemistry for Lovers brings together some of the finest minds in the world of science and art in a way that’s never been done... before. A combination concert, cabaret, and science lecture, this multi-media performance uses music, film, and the latest discoveries in the world of neuroscience to explore one of the most universal of all human experiences—Romantic Love.

The Production: Passion x Science = Entertainment2
Brain Chemistry for Lovers is the brainchild of Grammy nominated vocalist Valerie Day. Inspired by a National Geographic article about love and the chemicals in the brain, she conceived a multi- media performance piece that takes on this universal theme, with a twist—the performance incorporates the discoveries of today’s neuroscientists, who are finally crossing into the territory of the poet, the philosopher, the songwriter, (and the comedian!) to explain the feelings associated with Romantic Love.

Brain Chemistry for Lovers considers the stages of a relationship (Lust, Attraction, Attachment, and Rejection), connects them to the brain chemicals occurring in each stage (Dopamine, Seratonin, and Oxytocyn, among others)—and then expresses each through familiar selections of American popular song.

In collaboration with pianist Darrell Grant, filmmaker Jim Blashfield, arranger/orchestrator John Smith, and Oregon Health & Science University’s senior scientist Dr. Larry Sherman, PhD, the story behind the strongest human emotion is told through music, narrative, animation, and quotations from writers and philosophers through the ages.

Valerie Day is a vocalist, percussionist, arts education advocate, and parent. Valerie is an artist who revels in creating work that marries seemingly disparate disciplines and ideas. The child of a physician father and lyric soprano mother, Valerie’s concept for Brain Chemistry for Lovers is the natural outcome of a life that began with one foot in the world of science and the other in song.

Darrell Grant is a performer and composer and has built an international reputation as an artist and educator over the course of his twenty-year career. Since being introduced to international audiences in 1988 as the pianist in vocalist Betty Carter’s trio, Grant has performed extensively both as a sideman with such jazz luminaries as Betty Carter, Tony Williams, and Roy Haynes and as a bandleader and solo artist throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Grant is a professor at Portland State University where he also directs the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute.

Dr. Larry Sherman, PhD, is a senior scientist in the Division of Neuroscience and an associate professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the OHSU School of Medicine. He has over 60 publications in the areas of developmental neuroscience, neurodegenerative disease, and neuro-oncology. He lectures on numerous topics in neuroscience in public forums and is the president of the Oregon Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Sherman is also an accomplished classical and jazz pianist and has played in numerous musical groups since the age of 14.