Music is math—it is a sophisticated compilation of harmonies, pitches, and rhythms built upon the physical laws of sound that render emotional impact. Music moves us powerfully. Can math do the same? Might you come out of your next math lecture with tears in your eyes?

In order to examine these questions more truthfully, a new way of viewing these disciplines is essential. Math isn’t just an objective understanding of the universe, where answers are correct and incorrect, and music isn’t simply a subjective expression of deep emotion. The two are inextricably linked. The language of music uses mathematics to communicate powerful emotional messages about the questions that matter most to us in life and in death.

Pianist Mia Chung was the first-prize winner of the 1993 Concert Artists Guild Competition and a recipient of the 1997 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Dr. Chung has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, Alabama Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Harrisburg Symphony, Boston Pops, and the Seoul Philharmonic, among others, under the direction of such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, John Nelson, Andrew Litton, and Richard Westerfield.

An active recitalist, she has performed in major concert halls including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; Boston’s Symphony Hall; Seoul’s Sejong Art Center; and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. A 1993 Artistic Ambassador for the United States Information Agency, Dr. Chung toured Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. She was also a member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II.

Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, she graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, received a master’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate degree from the Juilliard School. Her teachers have included Peter Serkin, Boris Berman, Raymond and Anne Hanson, and George Manos.

A faculty member at Gordon College since 1991, Dr. Chung joined the Curtis faculty in 2012.

 Here is the link to the Live Stream – View on Cornell Cast