The Director
Wednesday February 6, 2013 @ 7:00 PM
Price: $35.00
Member Price: $31.50

Brainwave opening night.
SOLD OUT
The stand-by list becomes available at the admissions desk exactly two (2) hours before the start of the program. You must be physically present to sign up on the list. Any available tickets will be released to the stand-by list, in order, beginning ten minutes before the start of the program. Each person can purchase up to two tickets. You must be physically present at the time your name is called or your place in line will be forfeited. Unfortunately, we are unable to predict how many tickets, if any, may become available.
Chairman's Circle members of the museum have first priority to purchase tickets for sold-out programs, should tickets become available. Please call 212.620.5000 ext. 344 to inquire about membership.
“Illusions are when your brain cut corners and got caught.” – Carl Schoonover
As acclaimed theater and film director François Girard (The Red Violin) prepares his new production of Wagner's Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera, he and Columbia University neuroscientist Carl Schoonover (Portraits of the Mind) delve into human perception, from stagecraft to film, to music and imagery, to the mystique of the young hero Parsifal.
About the Speakers
French-Canadian director François Girard’s work has spanned theater, opera, television and film, most notably in the groundbreaking Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould, the Academy Award-winning The Red Violin, and the Emmy Award-winning Yo-Yo Ma Inspired by Bach. His work on the stage has included Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Kafka's The Trial, Wagner’s Siegfried, and Cirque du Soleil’s Zarkana seen at Radio City Music Hall.
Carl Schoonover graduated from Harvard College in 2006 with a degree in philosophy and is currently a doctoral student in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University Medical Center. He has written on neuroscience for the general public in such publications as Le Figaro, Commentaire, and LiveScience. In 2008 he cofounded NeuWrite, a collaborative working group for scientists, writers, and those in between. He hosts the radio show Wednesday Morning Classical on WKCR 89.9 FM, which focuses on opera, classical music, and their relationship to the brain. He is a former NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a 2012 TED Fellow.
Image credit: Jonas Kaufmann as Parsifal by Micaela Rossato, courtesy Metropolitan Opera.
This program is presented in association with the Metropolitan Opera.
About Brainwave: Illusion
The Buddha said that everything is illusion. What did he mean by that? This sixth edition of Brainwave will enlist the aid of neuroscientists to help us understand how the perception of our world is shaped by the surprising adaptability of our brains. Brainwave includes talks, special film screenings followed by discussions, interactive workshops, and much more!
Presenting Sponsor of Brainwave 2013


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Michael de Havenon is an independent scholar specializing in sculpture produced in Southeast Asia before the ninth century. In this illustrated talk he looks at how the image of Vishnu shifted as it was carried along trade routes to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia.
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