Math and music are often said to be related, but does this go any deeper than the fact that they both involve counting? In this lively hybrid of talk and concert, mathemusicians Eugenia Cheng and Dave Kung uncover mathematical structures in some of their favorite pieces of Western classical music. The presentation will be centred on – and sandwiched by! – the sonata for violin and piano in G major by Brahms. This will be interspersed with music by Bach, Debussy, Chopin, Elgar, and Gounod, and a discussion of a wide range mathematical concepts in the music including least common multiples, fractions, the harmonic series, symmetry, self-reference, and more. And how does a pool tube come into it? Come along to find out!

General admission tickets are free with a suggested donation of $45 per ticket. Purchase a VIP ticket for $70 to get premium reserved seating and access to an exclusive social hour after the talk with our speaker over food and drink.

Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician, educator, author, public speaker, concert pianist, artist and composer. She is Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, won tenure in Pure Mathematics at the University in Sheffield, and holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge. She was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and has written nine popular math books including “Beyond Infinity” which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize, “Is Math Real?” which won the 2024 LA Times Book Prize for Science and Technology. and two children’s books. She has given talks and interviews around the world including for the BBC, NPR, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She wrote the Everyday Math column for the Wall Street Journal for seven years, and has completed several art commissions and song commissions, including one for a GRAMMY nominated album. Her most recent book is “Unequal: The math of when things do and don’t add up”.

Dr. Dave Kung has worked in the intersection of mathematics and equity his entire career. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Transforming Post-Secondary Education in

Mathematics (TPSE-Math) and as a founding partner of the consulting group Math 4 the Future. Prior to that, he served as the Director of Policy at the UT Dana Center, leading the Launch Years Initiative that works with state teams to modernize math options for students across the high school / higher ed transition. He has directed MAA Project NExT, served as a professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, authored a variety of articles and books, produced two Great Courses lecture series, and won the MAA’s highest award in college math teaching. He resides in the DC area, coaching local high school teachers, as well as playing violin and running–never simultaneously.

This event is presented as a part of Math Out Loud, SUMM’s new public lecture series designed to bring engaging mathematical ideas to life.