Can Mozart improve your Mozzarella? What will Boccherini do to your Bocconcini? A new report out of Switzerland suggests that the much lauded ‘Mozart effect’ may not only work on children – it can also charge up your cheddar. Students from the Hochschule der Künste Bern and food technologists from ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences teamed up with Burgdorf artisanal cheesemakers Käsehaus K3 to find out if playing music to cheese as it matures affects its taste.

“Each of the eight cheeses maturing at Käsehaus K3 was exposed to a different sound over a period of six-and-a-half months,” said Michael Harenberg, Director of Studies, Sound Arts HKB. “Once matured, the cheeses were analysed by professional food technologists in a sensory consensus analysis and submitted to a panel of highly qualified culinary jurors in a blind taste test. As composers and musicians, it has been thrilling for us to carry out this project in Burgdorf and to develop the acoustic installation. We are delighted with the results.”

One control cheese and eight other wheels of semi-hard cheese were matured in special boxes, with each exposed to either different genres of...