CHRIS AND STEVE'S UNIVERSE OF MUSIC Comes to King's Place
By: Julie Musbach Feb. 28, 2019
From William Herschel (discoverer of Uranus and professional musician) to Sun-Ra (jazz composer and wannabe astronaut) via Patrick Moore and his xylophone, staring up at the cosmos' mysteries has always had a close connection with music.
This evening of conversation, contemplation, science and music brings together two expert enthusiasts to explore each other's domains. Astronomer Chris Lintott (BBC The Sky at Night, Stargazing Live) takes us from the beginning of the Universe to the future of the Universe and Musician Steve Pretty (Hackney Colliery Band) brings his trumpet, a drumming robot and a conch shell to explain what music is and how it can help us to understand the cosmos.
Chris Lintott is best known as co-presenter of the BBC's long running The Sky at Night programme. He is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, where he is also a research fellow at New College. As Principal Investigator of the Zooniverse, he leads a team who run the world's most successful citizen science projects, allowing more than a million people to discover planets, transcribe ancient papyri or explore the Serengeti. A passionate advocate of the public understanding of science, he is also the author, with Queen guitarist Brian May and Sir Patrick Moore of two books, both available in more than 13 languages.
"I love music - especially live, but I don't understand it. My attempts to sing at school resulted in being asked to just mouth the words, and I never really got past attempts at the Eastenders theme tune on the recorder. I'm hoping Steve can show me why the music I listen to every day - and on occasion dance really badly to - resonates with me, and how it's all put together.
I can absolutely promise I won't be singing."
Steve Pretty co-ordinates and performs about 100 gigs a year with Hackney Colliery Band as a freelance trumpet player and has also played with Kelis, Sam Smith, Paul Epworth, John Paul Jones, Sophie Ellis Bextor, The Cure, Paloma Faith, Jamie Cullum, Baaba Maal, Last Skeptik, Billy Bragg, Charlotte Church, Azekel, Eliza Doolittle and Eric Idle.
"I always wanted to study physics, but at school, I was always far too rubbish at maths, and far too distracted by making pieces of glorified plumbing make tooting noises. But that fascination with how the universe works never left me and being able to ask Chris to explain the entire universe to me while I explain music to him seems like a pretty amazing trade from my end."
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