Engineering and music form something of a crossroads. So merging Prof. Palma Catravas' “Sound and Engineering” and Prof. Tim Olsen's “Music in the 20th Century” this term was meant to be.
A series of events will bring the classes together again, including one in which Prof. Catravas, an accomplished pianist, joins an ensemble of friends from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she was a full-time graduate student and part-time chamber musician.
– Sunday, May 22, noon, Memorial Chapel – MTL Chamber Players (from Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT) present music of Mozart, Brahms and Bach. Ensemble features Joel Dawson, viola; Stephen Senturia, clarinet; and Catravas, piano.
– Monday, May 23, 12:05 to 1:10 p.m., Memorial Chapel – Lecture-demonstration, “Many Out of One: The Voices of the Piano,” with Bradford Gowen, professor of piano at the University of Maryland. He will deliver part II from 1:45 to 2:50 p.m., and a recital at 7 p.m.
– Finally, on Tuesday, at 12:30 p.m., Old Chapel – Joel Dawson will give a non-music seminar on “Electronics for Wireless Systems.”
“There really is a link between music and the hard sciences,” said Catravas. At MIT, she said, there is “lots of concert activity among mathematicians and engineers. A lot of people have a passion for both and have to choose.”
Said Olsen merging the classes, “It seemed like a good combination, so we decided to schedule our classes at the same time. Palma's class has musical content from a technical point of view; ours is musical. These courses will help the students whether they pursue a career in music or become enthusiastic patrons.”