The opening concert of the Harmonic Series was a great success. For information and to register for the upcoming concerts in this ongoing series. please visit harmonic.momath.org.

Math and music join forces for The Harmonic Series, an exciting new quarterly program presented by MoMath.   Hosted by public radio's "Piano Puzzler" Bruce Adolphe, each event will bring together different musicians, composers, and mathematicians — and some who are all three at once — in conversation and performance.   Enjoy the best of both worlds as these talented minds play live music and participate in an ongoing discussion about the artistic and logical intersections of these two disciplines.

Brought to you with the support of Deborah and Dexter Senft and Winton Capital Management.

Opening Concert - December 16, 2015 7:00 PM
"All Things Equal: Music and Math at the Piano"

Featuring performances by Noam Elkies & Orli Shaham

Don't miss the opening concert.  Noam Elkies is a mathematician, composer, and the youngest ever tenured professor at Harvard.  Orli Shaham is an acclaimed pianist and the host of “Dial-A-Musician.”  Celebrate Beethoven's birthday on December 16 with this eagerly anticipated debut!  Noam and Orli will display their performance talents and discuss with host Bruce Adolphe the subtle and splendid ways that mathematics weaves into their artistry.

The conversations continue — please join the National Museum of Mathematics for a wine and cheese reception following the performance.

The Harmonic Series 2015-2016 Concert Season

December 16, 2015
All Things Equal: Music and Math at the Piano

Featuring performances by Noam Elkies & Orli Shaham

See description above.

March 9, 2016
Sam Zygmuntowicz: The Math, Science, and Art of Violin-Making

Featuring a performance by Kristin Lee

How does a small wooden box help a violinist fill a concert hall with music?  Violinmaker Samuel Zygmuntowicz takes us into the hidden inner workings of the violin, exploring geometric principles of violin design that date back to the Renaissance, modern technologies that reveal everything from vibration patterns to the internal contours of wood, and how new techniques combine with violinmakers' traditional skills to make instruments rivaling the Old Masters. Zygmuntowicz gets into detail in this special presentation in which modern science meets ancient tradition.  And, hearing is believing: enjoy a special performance by award-winning violinist Kristin Lee on a Zygmuntowicz violin.

Sam Zygmuntowicz has made instruments by advance commission for performers such as Cho-Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Maxim Vengerov, Yo-Yo Ma, Leila Josefowicz, and members of the Emerson String Quartet.  A 1994 violin that he made for Isaac Stern set a record for the highest auction price paid for a musical instrument by a living maker.

Kristin Lee is the recipient of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant.  She has been praised for her mastery of tone, remarkable versatility, and impeccable technique.

June 8, 2016
Musical Palindromes & Symmetries: Music and Talk by Martin Bresnick

Featuring the Martin Bresnick Trio

Martin Bresnick’s Trio for violin, cello and piano (1988) is a musical journey through rigorously created palindromes and symmetries, some simple like a child's game of Cat's Cradle, others more complexly "handed" symmetrical forms, but all of which may be elegantly described mathematically.  What might the significance of such fearful abstractions mean to the human heart? Enjoy a performance by the Martin Bresnick Trio (Elly Toyoda, violin; Ashley Bathgate, cello; Lisa Moore, piano) and then join Martin as he speaks about the music and mathematics.

Martin Bresnick is a Yale professor and composer who has been "thriving as a teacher at the Yale School of Music, inspiring the students who work with him and writing a large, diverse roster of works that are admired by performers across America...music that seems at once ancient, elegiac and awesomely new...Listen and you will hear." (The New York Times)

Elly Toyoda began her violin studies at age eleven in Osaka, Japan.  Three years later, she was nominated as an “Uprising Young Musician” by Asahi Shimbun newspaper and gave a solo performance at Osaka Symphony Hall.  An avid supporter of contemporary music, Toyoda has premiered works as a member of the Norfolk New Music Ensemble and was appointed concertmistress for the New Music for Orchestra project at Yale.  In May 2016 she will complete her Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music, studying with Syoko Aki.

American cellist Ashley Bathgate has been described as an “eloquent new music interpreter” (The New York Times) and “a rising star of her instrument” (Albany Times Union) who combines “bittersweet lyricism along with ferocious chops” (New York Magazine).  Her “impish ferocity”, “rich tone,” and “imaginative phrasing” (New York Times) have made her one of the most sought after performers of her time.

The New York Times writes, “Lisa Moore, an Australian pianist long based in and around New York, has always been a natural, compelling storyteller” and The New Yorker has crowned her “New York's queen of avant-garde piano”.

September 14, 2016
Einstein’s Light: Bruce Adolphe’s Music from the Nickolas Barris Film

Featuring performances by Mark Steinberg & Marija Stroke

Albert Einstein said, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.  I often think in music.  I live my daydreams in music.  I see my life in terms of music.” Einstein played violin all his life and was particularly devoted to the music of Mozart and Bach.  In this multi-media presentation, violinist Mark Steinberg of the Brentano String Quartet and pianist Marija Stroke perform Bruce Adolphe’s score for the film Einstein’s Light, with stunning visualizations by Nickolas Barris projected on screen.

Mark Steinberg is an active chamber musician and recitalist.  He has been heard in chamber music festivals in Holland, Germany, Austria, and France and participated for four summers in the Marlboro Music Festival, with which he has toured extensively.  He has also appeared in the El Paso Festival, on the Bargemusic series in New York, at Chamber Music Northwest, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and in trio and duo concerts with pianist Mitsuko Uchida.  Mr. Steinberg has been soloist with the London Philharmonia, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Kansas City Camerata, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the Philadelphia Concerto Soloists, with conductors such as Kurt Sanderling, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

Marija Stroke has performed as soloist and in chamber music in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, and Asia, and at festivals including Caramoor, Mostly Mozart, the City of London Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, and Chamber Music Northwest.  Ms. Stroke is a member of the Apollo Trio which has performed at the Kennedy Center, Caramoor, Carnegie, and Avery Fisher Hall.  The recording of Bruce Adolphe’s “Einstein’s Light” with Joshua Bell and Marija Stroke will be released this year by Sony Classical; the first live concert performance of “Einstein’s Light” took place at the UNESCO Theater in Paris in January 2015 in the celebration of the Year of Light, the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s discovery of relativity.  Ms. Stroke is co-artistic director of the Garden City Chamber Music Society.