UMaine Concert April 14 Highlights Music and Physics of Horns
Contact: Nancy Ogle, (207) 581-1255, Leisa Preble, (207) 581-1016, George Manlove, (207) 581-3756
ORONO — Music and science will meld April 14, as a California musician, composer and physicist is scheduled to deliver an inspiring combination performance-lecture at Minsky Recital Hall in the Class of 1944 Hall.
Brian Holmes, professor of physics at San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif. and horn player with the San Jose Symphony and Opera San Jose, will illustrate the acoustical characteristics of horn-playing and explain the physical mechanics of sound as he plays several pieces, including a Beethoven sonata, with UMaine music instructor and pianist Laura Artesani.
His appearance was arranged through Nancy Ogle, a UMaine music professor and vocalist who has recorded some of Holmes’ compositions, and the UMaine Department of Physics and Astronomy faculty who periodically look for interesting ways to demonstrate the wide range of every-day applications of physics beyond the classroom.
Holmes will perform for a general audience at 7:30 p.m. on April 14th at Minsky and will give a physics and astronomy colloquium in 140 Bennett Hall at 3:10 p.m. April 15. The public is invited to both events, which are free. Ogle says the performance should be of particular interest to area musicians, especially brass players.
Holmes is an entertaining and engaging speaker, according to Ogle, who knows Holmes personally, and he also is a nationally acclaimed composer and horn player, whose interests in physics and music overlap.
He does research on the physics of musical instruments and has occasionally composed music related to science. His “Updike’s Science,” for instance, is a set of six songs about science, composed to humorous poems of John Updike. He has lectured on the physics of musical instruments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oberlin College, Cornell University, Brown University, Boston University, Boston College, Pomona College, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society and the Acoustical Society of America.
As a composer, Holmes often writes for solo voice and chorus. He has composed numerous songs, song cycles, choral works and instrumental works, including a concerto for toy piano and orchestra. Several works have been recorded by the Peninsula Women’s Chorus and by the Stanford University Chorale.
He also lectures on the physics of sports.