Valentines in the Library
The Thornton School’s Midori Goto presents student violinists, who perform works by Bach to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
February 14
The Thornton School’s Midori Goto presents student violinists, who perform works by Bach to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
February 14
Classical KUSC Radio
Filling the airwaves with music and arts programming, KUSC is the largest nonprofit classical station in the country.
Twenty-four hours a day at 91.5 FM
Filling the airwaves with music and arts programming, KUSC is the largest nonprofit classical station in the country.
Twenty-four hours a day at 91.5 FM
Einstein's Cosmic Messengers
Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative
Friday, October 22, 2010 : 8:00pm
University Park Campus
Bovard Auditorium
Admission is free.
Music and science coalesce in a stunning multimedia concert created by composer Andrea Centazzo and NASA physicist Michele Vallisneri.
Following this magnificent journey through the universe, science writer K.C. Cole will moderate a conversation with Andrea Centazzo; Michele Vallisneri; and Elena Pierpaoli, USC cosmology professor.
Performed live by Centazzo, Einstein’s Cosmic Messengers tells the story of gravitational waves: the ripples in the fabric of space and time produced by violent events in the distant universe. Albert Einstein predicted their existence in 1916, but only in the last two decades have we achieved the technology to detect them, enabling the U.S. Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and its siblings to develop a global network of observatories. LIGO’s measurements will illuminate the fundamental nature of gravity and throw open an entirely new window onto the universe, offering views of previously inaccessible phenomena such as the coalescence of black holes and neutron stars. They will complement the great discoveries of ground- and space-based astronomy and the investigations of missions such as Planck, which observes the radiation originating from the Big Bang itself.
In a career spanning more than 30 years, composer, conductor, percussionist and video artist Andrea Centazzo has performed in more than 1,500 concerts in Europe and the United States. He has recorded more than 150 albums and authored 350 compositions, including operas, symphonies and solo works, as well as eight musicology books. He has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts worldwide and has received many international awards. Over the past 20 years, Centazzo has been creating multimedia experiences that combine live music with video images, blending traditional instrumentation with the latest digital technology.
K.C. Cole is a science writer for the Los Angeles Times and a professor at the USC Annenberg School’s School of Journalism. She has written eight nonfiction books, including Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up, as well as articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Smithsonian magazine and the Columbia Journalism Review. Cole is interested in the natural connections between science, art and politics, and she hosts Categorically Not!, an “irregular” series of events exploring these intersections at Santa Monica Art Studios.
Cosmologist Elena Pierpaoli’s life work is to understand the universe in which we live, including its overall structure, composition, origins and evolution. By analyzing measurements of the cosmic microwave background, she helped to show that the universe is flat. She has done extensive work on dark matter and galaxy clusters, and is part of the science team for the mission Planck.
A theoretical physicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Michele Vallisneri received his Ph.D. in physics from Caltech. He is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the deputy mission scientist for LISA, the planned space-based gravitational wave observatory. His research interests span the detection, analysis and interpretation of gravitational wave signals, computational physics, and the creative interface of science and art as explored through music, visualization and computer programs.
Organized by Elena Pierpaoli (Physics and Astronomy).
Performed live by Centazzo, Einstein’s Cosmic Messengers tells the story of gravitational waves: the ripples in the fabric of space and time produced by violent events in the distant universe. Albert Einstein predicted their existence in 1916, but only in the last two decades have we achieved the technology to detect them, enabling the U.S. Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and its siblings to develop a global network of observatories. LIGO’s measurements will illuminate the fundamental nature of gravity and throw open an entirely new window onto the universe, offering views of previously inaccessible phenomena such as the coalescence of black holes and neutron stars. They will complement the great discoveries of ground- and space-based astronomy and the investigations of missions such as Planck, which observes the radiation originating from the Big Bang itself.
In a career spanning more than 30 years, composer, conductor, percussionist and video artist Andrea Centazzo has performed in more than 1,500 concerts in Europe and the United States. He has recorded more than 150 albums and authored 350 compositions, including operas, symphonies and solo works, as well as eight musicology books. He has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts worldwide and has received many international awards. Over the past 20 years, Centazzo has been creating multimedia experiences that combine live music with video images, blending traditional instrumentation with the latest digital technology.
K.C. Cole is a science writer for the Los Angeles Times and a professor at the USC Annenberg School’s School of Journalism. She has written eight nonfiction books, including Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the World He Made Up, as well as articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Smithsonian magazine and the Columbia Journalism Review. Cole is interested in the natural connections between science, art and politics, and she hosts Categorically Not!, an “irregular” series of events exploring these intersections at Santa Monica Art Studios.
Cosmologist Elena Pierpaoli’s life work is to understand the universe in which we live, including its overall structure, composition, origins and evolution. By analyzing measurements of the cosmic microwave background, she helped to show that the universe is flat. She has done extensive work on dark matter and galaxy clusters, and is part of the science team for the mission Planck.
A theoretical physicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Michele Vallisneri received his Ph.D. in physics from Caltech. He is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the deputy mission scientist for LISA, the planned space-based gravitational wave observatory. His research interests span the detection, analysis and interpretation of gravitational wave signals, computational physics, and the creative interface of science and art as explored through music, visualization and computer programs.
Organized by Elena Pierpaoli (Physics and Astronomy).