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Unconventional Music @ CERN: Celebrating 100 years of Albert Einstein's Nobel Prize

To celebrate Einstein’s love of music and science, the Swedish Embassy in Switzerland and CERN have organised the virtual event Unconventional Music @ CERN on the Nobel Week

Monday, 22 November 2021


Unconventional music
(Image: CERN)

The Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN will host an online event including a concert with unconventional instruments (one theremin and a noise table) in musical conversation with top CERN scientists on Wednesday 8 December 2021 to celebrate the anniversary of Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize.

Albert Einstein was awarded a Nobel Prize in December 1921, to honour his contributions to theoretical physics and his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. 

Because of his innumerable contributions to science, Einstein is considered the father of modern physics, but he was also an accomplished violinist who loved music.  

“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... I get most joy in life out of music.” - Albert Einstein

At the time Einstein received the Nobel Prize, a Russian engineer, Lev Termen, was laying the foundations of modern electronic music with his invention, the theremin. It was a technically advanced instrument relying on the progress in the scientific field at the time. Curious of this instrument, Einstein attended various concerts and even tried to play it.

Einstein and Nobel are two great minds whose legacies are as important today as ever. Albert Einstein had a strong connection to Switzerland. He studied in Aarau and Zürich, then researched in Bern before becoming a teacher at ETH in Zürich.

CERN and the Swedish Embassy found that unconventional music performed by a Swiss (Roland Bucher) and a Swedish (Henrik Rylander) artist in conversation with CERN scientists and musicians is an excellent way to celebrate Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize anniversary. 

Talks about Einstein, music and physics given by Prof. Brian Foster (University of Oxford) and Dr. Piotr Traczyk (CERN) will be followed by music performances of invited artists and CERN scientists and musicians: Pippa Wells, Paula Collins, Chiara Mariotti and Angela Ricci.

Join the live webcast from CERN's Globe of Science and Innovation on Wednesday 8 December at 1.30 p.m. and celebrate science with us.

Programme and information: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1093427/