The Smithsonian Associates Presents “David Byrne in Conversation”

September 14, 2012
News Release

The Smithsonian Associates presents an exclusive event with musician David Byrne Monday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. in Baird Auditorium at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. In conversation with singer, songwriter and guitarist David Lowery, Byrne will discuss his latest book, How Music Works.

Byrne is co-founder of the band Talking Heads and a 2002 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His latest book, How Music Works, explores how profoundly music is shaped by its time and place. Byrne explains how the advent of recording technology in the 20th century forever changed people’s relationship to playing, performing and listening to music.

Acting as historian and anthropologist, raconteur and social scientist, Byrne searches for patterns—and shows how those patterns have affected his own work over the years with Talking Heads and his many collaborators. Touching on the joy, the physics and the business of making music, his new book is an impassioned argument about music’s liberating and life-affirming power. Byrne’s book How Music Works is available for purchase at the program. Byrne will not be available for signing.

Ticket prices for the Smithsonian presentation are $27 for general admission and $20 for Associate members. For tickets and information, the public may call (202) 633-3030 or visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.

The Smithsonian Associates offers life-enriching, educational and cultural experiences inspired by the Smithsonian’s exhibitions, collections and research. Each year The Smithsonian Associates creates and presents more than 750 individual programs that deliver exceptional opportunities for learning and growth. Programs range from lectures on a multitude of topics to the performing arts for audiences of all ages, in the Washington, D.C., area and across the country.

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SI-412-2012

Media Only

Lauren Lyons

202-633-8614

lyonsl@si.edu