"Seeking the Mysterious in Art and Science"

FEBRUARY 26, 2026, 6:00PM

18-19h                                            Audiovisual concert
This concert is dedicated to the memory of Ferenc Rados.

Olivier Messiaen                   The Complete Preludes for Piano (1929)

SooJin Anjou, piano

Original video* by Lillevan

*World premiere; commissioned by SPARK

19.15 - 20.15h                                        DISCUSSION      

 “Seeking the mysterious in art and science”

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

It is the source of all true art and science.”   - Albert Einstein

with Lillevan, Georg Braune (medical student at Charité, researcher), Daria Bunina (molecular biologist, MDC group leader)
Moderated by SooJin Anjou, Nikolaus Rajewsky 

SPARK @ Berlin Science Week

SPARK 11: "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty"?

CONCERT 18-19h

SooJin Anjou, piano
Cicely Parnas, cello

Claude Debussy            Sonata for cello and piano (1915)

Wolfgang Köhler           Jazz Sonata for cello and piano (2022)*

                                           *world premiere

DISCUSSION 19.15 - 20.15h

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"?

In times of uncertainty, imagination is easily lost to urgency. Yet it is precisely now that we must ask: what lies beyond the immediate, and how can beauty help us see it? 

Many scientists and mathematicians have expressed the view that the hallmark of a correct solution is elegance and beauty. G.H. Hardy wrote in A Mathematician’s Apology (1940):“Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics.” Physicist Paul Dirac asserted “It is more important to have beauty in one’s equations than to have them fit experiment.”

Meanwhile, artists of all disciplines –– music, visual arts, dance –– have, throughout the centuries, wrestled with questions of proportion, form and structure, which are mathematical concepts at heart.

As we look “beyond now” with Berlin Science Week 2025, we invite bold ideas that transcend disciplines. Can beauty become a language of science? Can science, in turn, be a source of beauty and hope?

With Cicely Parnas, Wolfgang Köhler, Georg Braune (medical student at Charité, researcher), Stefanie Grosswendt (systems biologist, research group leader at BIH and MDC-BIMSB)

Moderated by SooJin Anjou, Nikolaus Rajewsky 

SPARK 10: “The Future of Education”

Concert

SooJin Anjou, piano
Miguel Pérez-Iñesta, clarinet

Cathy Milliken    
SPOKEN MUSIC (2024)*

    A church
    Someone              
    The amphibian path

*world premiere / commissioned by Spark / with poems by Tomás Cohen 

Luciano Berio      
Lied (1983)

C.Saint-Saëns  
Sonata for clarinet and piano (1921)

M. Ravel     
La Valse (1920)

Discussion : “The Future of Education” 
with Cathy Milliken, Miguel Pérez-Iñesta, Markus Landthaler (professor of RNA systems biology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, group leader at MDC), Tanja Florin (science manager & protein biochemist)

Moderated by SooJin Anjou,  Nikolaus Rajewsky

SPARK 9: "Focus: The Long and Short of It"

Concert

SooJin Anjou, piano
Shanshan Yao, violin

Sidney Corbett (b. 1960)
From the Garden (2023)*  for solo piano       

*Berlin premiere    

Antonín Dvorák
Silent Woods (1883)

Amy Beach
Violin Sonata (1896)

19.15 - 20h              Discussion "Focus: The Long and Short of It"

with Sidney Corbett, Michael Sigal (MDC group leader, gastroenterologist and professor at Charité), Shanshan Yao
Moderated by SooJin Anjou, Nikolaus Rajewsky

SPARK @ Berlin Science Week

SPARK 8: “Improvisation in Art, Science, Life”

Concert 

SooJin Anjou, piano

David Friedman, vibraphone

G. F. Händel                 Keyboard Suite Nr. 2

(arranged by SooJin Anjou for vibraphone and piano)

D. Friedman                  Undercurrents*** for vibraphone and piano

C. Debussy                  Clair de lune, with an improvised response by D. Friedman

An improvised solo set by David Friedman

                                                         ***commissioned by Spark, world premiere

Discussion: “Improvisation in Art, Science, Life”

With David Friedman, Pablo Castagnola (photographer), Fabian Coscia (biologist, proteomics researcher), moderated by SooJin Anjou and Michela Di Virgilio (molecular biologist)

SPARK 7: “A CV of Failures”

Concert
SooJin Anjou, piano
Marlene Ito, violin

Reggie Moore       New Work* (2024)                                                                
Fritz Kreisler          Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice, Op.6 (1911) 
Franz Schubert     Fantasy in C for violin and piano, D. 934 (1827)               

*commissioned work for Spark, with contributions by the MDC community; world premiere  

Discussion: "A CV of Failures"
Marlene Ito (Principal Second Violin, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), Reggie Moore (jazz composer, pianist, arranger), Nikolaus Rajewsky (BIMSB Director), Gabriel Victora (immunologist, winner of a MacArthur “Genius Grant”)

Special Guest: Melanie Stefan (computational neurobiologist; professor of physiology at Medical School Berlin; author of the viral article “A CV of Failures”)

Moderated by SooJin Anjou

SPARK 6: "Between Communication and Self-Promotion"

Concert 

SooJin Anjou, piano
Martin Smith, cello 

Ketan Bhatti    Serenely Swarmed***
Nadia Boulanger   3 pieces for cello and piano
L. v. Beethoven    Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 102 Nr. 1
S. Prokofiev    Piano Sonata Nr. 4
                                   ***commissioned by Spark, world premiere

Discussion: “Between Communication and Self-Promotion”  

with Ketan Bhatti, Martin Smith, Michael Robson (developmental biologist), Samantha Mendonsa (biologist, next-gen sequencing specialist), Marie Burns (MDC’s coordinator for scientific public outreach formats)

Moderated by SooJin Anjou, Nikolaus Rajewsky

SPARK 5: “Resilience and Longevity in Creative Lives”

Concert

SooJin Anjou, piano

C. Debussy     La plus que lent (1910)

E. Schulhoff Suite dansante en jazz (1931)

N. Kapustin Concert Etude Op. 40 Nr. 1

Original compositions, improvisations and a demonstration of a crowd-sourced instant composition

by Reggie Moore, piano

Discussion: “Resilience and Longevity in Creative Lives”

with Eliska Fürst (ultramarathon runner and PhD candidate in metabolic diseases, genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics at MDC), Annette Grüters-Kieslich (professor of pediatrics, pediatric endocrinologist, former dean of Charité), Reggie Moore, Claus Scheidereit (research group leader in gene regulation and signal transduction at MDC, recipient of the German Cancer Prize)

Moderated by SooJin Anjou, Nikolaus Rajewsky

SPARK 4: "Inspiration or Discipline? Solving Mental Blocks"

Concert

SooJin Anjou, piano
Robyn Schulkowsky, percussion

Bela Bartók  Three Rondos on Folk Tunes

Charlotte Seither Schwebende Verse ("Floating Verses", 2012) for piano and percussion*      

*Berlin premiere           

John Cage Child of Tree

Johannes Brahms  Four piano pieces, Op. 119

‍ ‍

Discussion:"Inspiration or Discipline? Solving Mental Blocks"

with Jan Philipp Junker (professor of systems biology at Charité, group leader at MDC-BIMSB), Markus Mittnenzweig (group leader of the Computational and Developmental Biology Lab at MDC), Robyn Schulkowsky, Charlotte Seither, Lieke Lotte van de Haar (postdoctoral fellow at Max Delbrück Center, Berlin)

Moderated by SooJin Anjou, Nikolaus Rajewsky

SPARK 3: "Leaving the Comfort Zone in Art and Research"

Concert

SooJin Anjou, piano
Wojciech Garbowski, violin
Natalie Clein, cello
James Helgeson, piano

Bach                    Sarabande from BWV 1011, arr. by James Helgeson                               

Helgeson             Violin Sonata “Two Islands”*

                               Piano Trio*
              II. Nervendes Tänzchen für einen Märztag
              III. Nach BWV 1011

                               Excerpts from “Tierpark” for solo cello   

Beethoven            Piano Sonata in A, Op. 101                  

*world premieres

Discussion: "Leaving the Comfort Zone in Art and Research"

with SooJin Anjou, Natalie Clein, Wojciech Garbowski, James Helgeson, Ana Pombo (Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University, BIMSB senior group leader); moderated by Nikolaus Rajewsky

SPARK 2: "The Future of Art and Science in the Age of AI"

Concert

Sebastian Breuninger, violin
SooJin Anjou, piano

Wolfgang Köhler       Violin Sonata (2018) *world premiere

César Franck          Violin Sonata

Discussion: "The Future of Art and Science in the Age of AI"

with SooJin Anjou, Laleh Haghverdi (computational biologist), Wolfgang Köhler, Daniel León Periñán (PhD candidate in computational modeling of spatial omics); moderated by Nikolaus Rajewsky

SPARK 1: "The Semi-Lucid State and Other Mechanisms of Creativity"

Concert

SooJin Anjou, Piano

Charlotte Bray (1982-)         Off the Rails (2006)*

                                            All at Sea (2012)*

                                             *Berlin premieres

J. S. Bach (1684-1750)    Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

Discussion:"The Semi-Lucid State and Other Mechanisms of Creativity"
with SooJin Anjou, Charlotte Bray, Ana Pombo (Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University, BIMSB senior group leader); moderated by Nikolaus Rajewsky (BIMSB Director)