State Theatre New Jersey will present star soprano Renée Fleming on Wednesday, February 27, at 8 p.m. The theater is at 15 Livingston Avenue. The preceding day, Fleming will appear at Mason Gross School of the Arts for “Music and the Mind: A Conversation with Renee Fleming,” at 7 p.m. in Rutgers University’s Nicholas Music Center, 85 George Street, New Brunswick.

Tickets are $49-$99 for the State Theatre event. Admission to the lecture is free, but advance registration is required.

“Renée Fleming is one of the most extraordinary singers of our time and we are proud to bring her to New Brunswick for her State Theatre debut,” said Sarah K. Chaplin, State Theatre New Jersey president and CEO. “We are especially proud to partner with the Mason Gross School to present Ms. Fleming in the free lecture, Music and the Mind.”

Fleming is known for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera. She has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and Andrea Bocelli, but also with Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting, Josh Groban, and Joan Baez. She has hosted a wide variety of television and radio broadcasts, including the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series. In 2013, President Obama awarded her America’s highest honor for an artist, the National Medal of Arts. She recently appeared on Broadway in a revival of Carousel.

Concert program highlights include: Johannes Brahms: “Meine Liebe ist grü,” Op. 63, No. 5; Heitor Villa-Lobos: “Ária (Cantilena)” from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 – featured in Bel Canto (film based on the novel); Harry Warren/Mack Gordon (arr. Alexandre Desplat): “You’ll Never Know” – featured in The Shape of Water (film); Giacomo Puccini: “Signore, Ascolta” from Turandot; Francesco Paolo Tosti: “La Serenata”; and Meredith Wilson: “‘Till There Was You,” from The Music Man.

The panel discussion will focus on the power of music as it relates to health and the brain. Inspired by Fleming’s Sound Health initiative, which encourages research into the links between music and wellness, the event features Fleming and Rutgers neurologist Dr. Daniel P. Schneider, director of the Rutgers Dementia Clinic and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Deep Brain Stimulation Clinic. The discussion will be moderated by musicologist Eduardo Herrera, professor of ethnomusicology and music history at the Mason Gross School. 

Fleming and Schneider will present research demonstrating how our brains process music and how listening, performing, or creating music can contribute to better health. Fleming will also share the findings of a study that measured her brain activity while she spoke, sang, and imagined musical phrasing.

“We are honored to host this lecture featuring Renée Fleming, one of the most distinguished sopranos of our time,” said George B. Stauffer, dean of the Mason Gross School. “I’m confident that her discussion with our own Daniel Schneider will prove to be immensely interesting to the students and faculty of Mason Gross and Rutgers as a whole. It also underscores the ongoing collaboration between Mason Gross and the State Theatre, one of New Jersey’s brightest cultural jewels.”

Visit www.stnj.org for more information.