Flutist Laurel Trainor is the Director of the new McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, and a driving force in its creation. We know her in her role as a professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University and many of you are familiar with the research she and her students have done on development of auditory and movement areas of the brain, and her studies of brain development of music students compared to students who do not take music lessons. These studies suggest that music can have a profound effect on how the brain gets wired up. What some of you may not know is that Laurel also has a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Toronto, loves chamber music, and is currently co-principal flute of Symphony Hamilton.

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