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The Mathematics Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Music Theory, Jacobs School of Music, have announced the 2025 Celebration of Mathematics and Music at Indiana University Bloomington:
Tuesday February 25
7:00 PM
Ford-Crawford Hall
Simon Music Building
Indiana University Bloomington
http://tinyurl.com/4tnacmad
LiveStream: https://liveatjacobs.music.indiana.edu
A reception will follow the event, close by in room 340.
The hour-long presentation will feature a mixture of lecture and performances by guest Ami Radunskaya and the IU Jacobs School of Music Pneum Quartet.
Ami Elizabeth Radunskaya is an American mathematician and musician. She is a professor of mathematics at Pomona College, where she specializes in dynamical systems and the applications of mathematics to medicine, such as the use of cellular automata to model drug delivery. In 2016 she was elected as the president of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM).
The title of her lecture/performance is “Mathematics as the musician-machine connection”, which will be illustrated with performances of original compositions. “One of the most beautiful things about mathematics is its ability to describe evolving patterns”, says Professor Radunskaya. “In this context, we can consider music as evolving patterns of sound––as one manifestation of what mathematicians call dynamical systems. When musicians pluck, bow or finger a string, they are interacting with a dynamical system through what we might call ‘an expressive gesture’.”
The presentation will demonstrate how dynamical systems, from simple functions to complex chaotic systems, can be used in live performance to provide a framework for real-time human-machine interactions. This creates an exciting two-way event where we can listen to mathematics, manifested as evolving patterns of sound. At the same time, we “hear” the mathematics (the pattern) as it reacts to the performer. In a final example of the dynamical system/human synergy, the Pneum quartet will perform “Nefarious Networks”. In this work the musicians’ interactions are guided by a living score created by a dynamic network representing social interactions.
The Pneum Quartet https://www.instagram.com/pneumquartet/ is the current student string quartet in residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Winners of the Kuttner String Quartet Competition two years in a row, they have been working closely with the Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet, concentrating on string quartet literature while pursuing their respective degrees.
A more detailed program, in .pdf, accompanies this announcement.
[pdf of 3-page official Jacobs School of Music announcement]
This third annual event is made possible by: the Celebration of Math and Music Fund, created in 2023 by a gift from alums Leslie and Leon Shivamber ’86, with additional support from alum Frank Graves ’75.
Questions may be directed to Mathematics faculty member Kevin Pilgrim ’85 pilgrim@iu.edu .
Ami Elizabeth Radunskaya
The Pneum Quartet
Nefarious Networks
The College of Arts