Golden Hornet’s The Sound of Science featuring Jeffrey Zeigler

Friday, January 31, 2020 at 7:30pm
Memorial Chapel, 221 High Street, Middletown

$28 general public; $26 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff/alumni, non-Wesleyan students; $6 Wesleyan students, youth under 18

Cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies Barry Chernoff discuss Golden Hornet's "The Sound of Science," which was performed at Wesleyan University in January 2020 and featured the Connecticut premiere of "Pastaza," a piece by composer Graham Reynolds which reflects on Chernoff's work:

Full Trailer | Golden Hornet's "The Sound of Science" featuring Jeffrey Zeigler from Golden Hornet on Vimeo.

“A comprehensive, responsible work that makes its listeners think about the ethereal beauty of life as well as the real world with its very real problems.”
—Sightlines Magazine

Cellist Jeffrey Zeigler has performed as part of the Kronos Quartet, as well as with Laurie Anderson, Roomful of Teeth, and Vijay Iyer. Co-curated with Austin, Texas-based bandleader and composer Graham Reynolds, The Sound of Science (2018) features works by seven composers, who chose eight influential scientists and created pieces inspired by their life and research. The Connecticut premiere will feature Pastaza, which reflects on the work of Wesleyan's Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Biology, Chair of the Environmental Studies Program, and Director of the College of the Environment Barry Chernoff. His research focuses on freshwater fish of the Neotropical region.

Listen to a conversation with Jeffrey Zeigler, Graham Reynolds, Barry Chernoff, and Wesleyan Professor of Music Ron Kuivila about Golden Hornet’s "The Sound of Science" on the Center for the Arts Radio Hour podcast on SoundCloud. Limited podcast series made possible by WESU Middletown.



Click here to read the Connection article Fish Species Named After Professor Barry Chernoff.

Some of the other remarkable composer-scientist pairs include Foday Musa Suso, an internationally recognized musician and Mandingo griot, who composed a piece about George Washington Carver; Yuka C. Honda of the band Cibo Matto, who was inspired by Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician who computed Apollo 11’s route to the moon; and Graham Reynolds' piece inspired by Kristen Harris, Professor of Neuroscience at University of Texas, who studies the cell biology of learning and memory.

Presented in partnership with Wesleyan’s College of the Environment.

Image by Fernando Aceves.