Monday, September 29, 2025
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.
Music, Math, and Mind
David Sulzer, Columbia University
Dr. Sulzer will discuss how music is heard and understood in the nervous system by humans and other animals with a cortex. In this lecture, we’ll also explore other animals who can play music, especially the Thai Elephant Orchestra.
This program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Pre-Health Program and the departments of biology, music, psychology and theater & dance. The Clarke Forum’s student project managers initiated this program. The program is also part of the Clarke Forum annual theme, Thought Experiments.
Topic overview written by Supasinee Siripun ’27
Biography (provided by the speaker)
Dave Soldier leads a double life as a musician and a neuroscientist. As composer, he cofounded (with conservationist Richard Lair) the Thai Elephant Orchestra, 14 elephants for whom he built giant instruments and who released 3 CDs, and projects with children, including rural Guatemala (Yol Ku: Mayan Mountain Music) and New York’s East Harlem (Da HipHop Raskalz). His Soldier String Quartet helped usher the use of hip-hop, R&B, and punk rock into classical music in the 1980s, and his long-running Memphis/New Read more