A Well-Tempered Mind: Using Music to Help Children Listen and Learn

Peter Perret, conductor of the Winston-Salem Symphony for more than 25 years, wondered if placing a woodwind quintet in a poorly performing elementary school might help students academically. He decided to try, and the result was an eye-brow raising jump in the children’s test scores—and this book.

Perret describes an innovative program for first-through third-graders at two elementary schools in Winston-Salem and a journey of discovery into the brain for him. The quintet taught the children...