Conference by Elaine Chew on April 16, 5:30 pm

New event organized by Les Amis de l’IHES on Thursday April 16, 2026 at 5:30 pm (French Time) at IHES

Elaine Chew (pianist and researcher at King’s College London) will give a conference in English  (in simultaneous translation) and in hybrid format, entitled:

“Music of the Heart: Analogies and what they mean for heart health”

Our hearts sustain life. The muscles of the heart relax and contract 100,000 times a day, 3 billion times in a typical lifetime, to pump blood throughout the body. Heart disease is responsible for 1/3 of deaths worldwide. Music is an expression of life, relying upon fundamental physiological analogies to heartbeats and breathing to both mimic and evoke bodily experiences.

What can music tell us about heart disease? How can it be used precisely in medical interventions?

In this lecture, we shall explore the analogic connections between music and heartbeats (including abnormal ones) and the opportunities they present for music-based cardiovascular diagnostics and therapeutics, i.e. music heart theranostics.

This lecture will be accompanied by performances of piano music made from cardiac arrhythmias and real-time visualisations of music’s impact on heartbeats and breathing.

Register here.

Contact : Ingrid Peeters