“Are We Born Musical?” David Byrne and Steven Pinker in Conversation

The atmosphere outside Tsai Performance Center was heavy with anticipation on Monday night as people lined up for the sold-out “How Music Works: Are We Born Musical?” lecture, which featured musician and author David Byrne and renowned cognitive scientist Steven Pinker in conversation. Byrne, best known as the founder of the band Talking Heads, was in Boston as part of his tour Love This Giant with artist St. Vincent. He and Pinker, who is a professor at Harvard, were brought together to kick off the Boston University Arts Initiative, an effort by the Office of the Provost in partnership with DialogProjects to “improve visibility for the University’s broad array of existing arts-related activities” on campus.