Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards 2025 Award Recipients

Constantina Theofanopoulou, PhD is the Herbert and Nell Singer Research Assistant Professor at Rockefeller University, Research Associate at Emory University and the US Department of Veteran Affairs, and Visiting Scholar at the NYU’s Jameel Arts & Health Lab. Her research aims to understand the neurobiology of complex sensory-motor behaviors, specifically speech and dance, and to uncover effective drug and arts-based interventions for sensory-motor deficits commonly seen in brain disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease.

Her work on the neurobiology of dance has gained global media attention (e.g., New York Times, Dance Magazine). She has earned over 20 scientific awards, including as a Next Generation Leader by the Allen Institute, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. Additionally, as a flamenco dancer, she has performed in numerous shows worldwide and has received the first flamenco prize by the Spanish Dance Society and a fellowship from NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts.

David Leventhal is a dancer, teaching artist, and Program Director of the Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for PD® program.

Internationally recognized for advancing dance as a therapeutic tool for people with Parkinson’s Disease, he has trained and mentored more than 2,500 teaching artists in 30 countries, co-produced five volumes of instructional videos, and co-developed Moving Through Glass, a Google Glass-based prototype to assist with balance and gait. His honors include the Alan Bonander Humanitarian Award, Martha Hill Mid-Career Artist Award, IADMS Pioneer Dance Educator Award, and the 2016 World Parkinson Congress Award. He contributed chapters to four books, including Renée Fleming’s Music and Mind, and teaches a dance-based elective for first-year medical students at Columbia University. A former Mark Morris Dance Group company member (1997–2011), he received a Bessie Award for his performance career and graduated with honors from Brown University.

Giovanni Battistella, PhD is an Instructor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School. 

He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from Politecnico di Torino and a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Lausanne. The overarching goal of his research is to understand the neural basis of neurological voice and language disorders to provide better tools to diagnose, treat, and manage these conditions. To do so, he uses in vivo brain imaging techniques (Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography, and Magnetoencephalography), advanced analytical methods investigating brain networks’ organization, and machine-learning tools. Additionally, he uses novel MRI protocols to enhance the spatial and temporal resolution of simultaneous image acquisitions of the brain and vocal tract structures during speaking. Dr. Battistella is honored to use his expertise to contribute to advancing the field of neuroarts.

Kristin Norderval,  PhD, DMA is an accomplished American composer and vocalist known for her innovative approach to music, particularly contemporary vocal music and new media.

Her operas, chamber works, sound installations, and music for dance blend acoustic and electronic sounds, home-made instruments, voices, machines, and the acoustic resonance of space.  Kristin´s solo album Aural Histories was named one of Ten Notable Classical Music Recordings of 2012 by The New Yorker music critic Alex Ross. Her opera The Trials of Patricia Isasa (2016) won Quebec´s OPUS prize for best contemporary music and best production. From 2019-2023 Kristin was a PhD Research Fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, where she developed the Expanded Vocal Improvising Instrument (EVII) for gestural audio processing. Kristin has used the EVII in solo performances, in her opera Crane Reflects on a Favor, in collaborations with other improvising musicians, and with choreographer and performance artist Jill Sigman.

Daniel Liu Bowling, PhD is a translational neuroscientist integrating music neuroscience, therapy, and technology to develop music-based treatments for disorders of mood, anxiety, and social connection.

His work is rooted in the biology of vocal behavior and its role in emotional regulation and communication. He earned a PhD in Neurobiology from Duke University for work on emotion and tonality before completing postdoctoral work at the University of Vienna on bioacoustics, rhythm, and synchrony. At Stanford Medicine, his work has focused on voice perception in autism and music-based digital-therapeutics for depression and anxiety. 

A lifelong musician, he completed RCM Grades 1–9 in piano before moving to the U.S. Daniel’s research has been supported by the NIH, Austrian Science Fund, University of Vienna, and Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. He has published over 40 articles in journals including Science, PNAS, Molecular Psychiatry, and Translational Psychiatry, advancing a biological framework for music’s clinical applications. 

Sarah Fogler, MS, MT-BC, LCAT-LP is a Board-Certified Music Therapist and a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist. She has clinical experience working in a variety of settings, including with older adults in rehabilitation and long-term care facilities as well as young adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Sarah currently works as a music therapist at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF) where she completed her internship in June 2024. At IMNF, Sarah works to improve the quality of life of each individual she works with.

Alongside therapeutic work, Sarah is an active vocalist and hornist in her community. Having honed her skills at Nazareth University, she developed a passion for both vocal and instrumental performance. Sarah holds a Master of Science in Music Therapy from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Her research, Music-Based Stress Management for College Music Students: Research Protocol, investigates the impact of guided music experiences on reducing academic stress among college music majors. Recognizing the demanding nature of music programs, her study explores how accessible online music therapy experiences can serve as a reflexive self-care tool to address academic stress as it relates to anxiety, depression, and burnout, which are common among music students.

Akila Kadambi, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher jointly appointed in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC.

Combining interdisciplinary methodologies (behavior, functional neuroimaging, and brain stimulation), her research examines the neural mechanisms for empathy and self-processing, with a focus on how these processes are shaped by expressive modalities such as body movements, narratives, and music. She has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and leads projects with support from the Dana Foundation, UCLA Institute to Study Hate, Google Research, Sanford Institute, UCLA Racial and Social Justice Initiative, and Templeton World Charity Foundation. She was the recipient of UCLA’s Best Dissertation Department Area Award and a fellow of the UCLA-CDU Dana Center, Summer Seminar in Neuroscience and Philosophy at Duke University, and Diverse Intelligences at the University of St. Andrews. She also helps direct mentorship programs for former foster youth and has consulted with the California Civil Rights Department.

Anne Preven is an award-winning songwriter, publisher and record producer. She has written songs for Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Sinéad O’Connor, Katy Perry, Natalie Imbruglia, Zac Brown Band, Sarah McLachlan and Demi Lovato among others.

In addition to her collaborations with artists from a variety of musical genres, she has written and produced for film, television and stage garnering Academy Award, Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Grammy nominations along the way.  Anne also co-founded powerhouse music publishing company Pulse Music Group. 

Anne has always been interested in neuroscience and the arts.  The daughter of a psychiatrist and trained as a classical violinist, she graduated from Harvard University where she majored in Neuropsychology and directed a co-ed a cappella group.  Her senior thesis “The Effect of Amygdalectomy on Crossmodal Associations in Humans,” a study conducted at MIT’s Clinical Research Center under the direction of Suzanne Corkin, was awarded The Hoopes Prize. 

Pablo Ripollés, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Music Technology at New York University (NYU), where he leads the Ripollés Lab. Ripollés serves as the Associate Director of NYU’s Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL), an interdisciplinary research center at the intersection of machine learning, cognitive neuroscience, and music technology. 

His research is inherently interdisciplinary and focuses on building bridges between different fields of the cognitive neurosciences— especially reward and memory—and other areas of study, including music, language, and technology. Pablo’s work also goes beyond basic research and includes applied scientific studies that capitalize on music to improve human health and well-being. He has received funding from federal agencies including the NSF and NIH, as well as industry partners and private foundations.

Anna Palumbo, LCAT, MT-BC is a music therapist completing a PhD in rehabilitation sciences at New York University in May 2025. Her research investigates behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of music interventions, focusing on social, emotional, and functional outcomes.

Her work includes clinical trials demonstrating the benefits of music therapy for improving motor recovery, emotional well-being, and the neural environment for recovery post-stroke. In mechanistic studies, her work demonstrates the benefit of music improvisation and live accompaniment for increasing reward and motor responses, which play important roles in music therapy engagement. Her qualitative research describes the psychosocial processes leading to improved self-perception among survivors of stroke in a music therapy group. Her research is supported by a Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH).