In July/August of 2013 I attended the FQMT13
conference in Prague. More than 400 physicists from all over
the world attended and the meeting offered a convincing and very
successful synthesis between science and music at historical
venues.
On the evening of Thursday, 1st of August, I was to give an one-hour
public lecture on How astronomers
define our world view (pdf version of my Prague
speech) in the
Church of St.Simon and Jude in which Amadeus Mozart and Joseph
Haydn had played, with subsequent time for discussion with the public.
This presentation did take place, but beforehand I was handed the
Silver Commemorative Medal of the Senate of the Czech Republic by the
deputy chairwoman of the Czech Senate. This came as a surprise as I
was not expecting this honour when I flew to Prague (I was warned by
Vaclav Spicka one day ahead of the event though). The honorary
Australian consul also came. The entire evening was camera-recorded.
On this evening we heard the legendary and brilliant Yuval Waldman playing the
violin, and I was thrilled to talk with him on occasions in the
bar. It is not quite clear how one person can play sounding as if
three violenists are at work at the same time. The musical ensemble
was brlliant, and mezzo-soprano Pavla Busova sang six Jewish songs
with in-depth feeling and artistic beauty, for me a deep sensation
of Prague's past when a substantial jewish community once lived near
this church.
The outline of this evening can be viewed here programme.
Silver Commemorative Medal of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Praha, 01.08.2013.
Receiving the Silver Commemorative Medal of the Senate of the
Parliament of the Czech Republic, Praha, 01.08.2013 (photo by
Seungkyung Oh)
Beginning of my presentation, Praha, 01.08.2013 (photo by Seungkyung Oh).
