The Mathematics Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Music Theory, Jacobs School of Music, have announced the 2024 Celebration of Mathematics and Music at Indiana University Bloomington:

Tuesday February 20
7:00 PM
Ford-Crawford Hall
Simon Music Building
Indiana University Bloomington
http://tinyurl.com/4tnacmad

A reception will follow the event, close by in room 350.

The hour-long event will feature a mixture of lecture and performance.

Dr. Eugenia Cheng https://eugeniacheng.com/ is a mathematician, educator, author, public speaker, columnist, concert pianist, composer, and artist. An interview with Stephen Colbert can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA402F5K47oThe

The title of her lecture/performance is “Mathematical Secrets of Music” which will be illustrated with music from several classical composers. Dr. Cheng is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She earned tenure in pure mathematics at the University of Sheffield (UK) and is now Honorary Visiting Fellow at City, University of London. She holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge and taught previously at the Universities of Cambridge, Chicago, and Nice. In this lively hybrid talk and concert, Dr. Cheng will uncover mathematical structures in some of her favorite pieces of music. The music, for which Dr. Cheng will be joined by mezzo-soprano and IU faculty member Michelle DeYoung, will be interspersed with discussion of a wide range of mathematical concepts in the music, including lowest common multiples, prime numbers, fractions, fractals, braids and more.

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung https://www.michelledeyoung.com/ is in demand throughout the world, having appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She has also performed at the festivals of Ravinia, Tanglewood, Saito Kinen, Edinburgh, and Lucerne.

A more detailed program, in .pdf, accompanies this announcement.

This second annual event is made possible in part by donations from alum Frank Graves ’75. Additional support for this and future events is now also provided by the Celebration of Math and Music Fund, created this past year by a gift from alums Leslie and Leon Shivamber ’86.

Questions may be directed to Mathematics faculty member Kevin Pilgrim ’85 pilgrim@iu.edu