Yuja Wang Monitors Heart Rate During Rachmaninoff Marathon

During a Carnegie Hall concert in January 2023 dubbed a “Musical Everest” by the New York Times, the pianist Yuja Wang and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin wore heart monitors while performing all four of Rachmaninoff’s piano concerti as well as Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. Heart monitors were also donned by the accompanying Philadelphia Orchestra and select audience members for an experiment through Carnegie Hall.

The findings: The experiment’s results, which were released last week, revealed consistent heartbeat synchronization between Wang and conductor Nézet-Séguin. Another striking discovery was that the audience and orchestra’s heartbeats also synced with Wang’s and Nézet-Séguin’s during a particularly touching moment of the 3rd Piano Concerto. Wang herself could reportedly identify different musical landmarks in each piece just by looking at her heart rate patterns.

Context is everything: Last year, a professor at the University of Bern in Switzerland conducted another study monitoring audience members’ heart and breath rate responses to classical music. The study found that audiences breathe, sweat and move at similar rates while listening to the same music. In 2020, another study showed how attending classical concerts promotes social bonding. More cases for the connective powers of the arts, amirite? 🙂

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Sara Schabas

Sara Schabas is a soprano and writer born and bred in the heart of Toronto’s musical community. When she’s not singing opera, you can find her covering Carole King on the ukulele, biking through the Annex and advocating the merits of Puccini.