Gene Machine: An Evening of Science and Music with Venki Ramakrishnan, Raman Ramakrishnan, and Benjamin Hochman

Gene Machine combines science and music for an evening to thrill the mind and soul. This unique event features a conversation between Nobel Prize laureate Venki Ramakrishnan and members of the University of Illinois scientific community, along with musical performances by his son, renowned cellist Raman Ramakrishnan, and concert pianist and conductor Benjamin Hochman.

Venki Ramakrishnan's book, Gene Machine, provides a compelling insider account of the race to decipher the secrets of the ribosome, which translates messenger RNA into protein. A former president of the Royal Society, he has received many honors and recognitions in addition to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, including a Guggenheim fellowship and the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine. In 2012, he was granted knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to molecular biology.

Raman Ramakrishnan holds a physics degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree from The Julliard School. He has performed throughout North America, Europe, India, Japan, and Hong Kong. A founding member of the Daedalus Quartet and a former member of the Horszowski Trio, he has also performed as a guest member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. He is an artist in residence at Bard College and is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Pianist Benjamin Hochman has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor. Born in Jerusalem in 1980, he debuted as a soloist at age 24 with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. He won the Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant. He is a Steinway Artist and lives in Berlin, where he is a lecturer at Bard College Berlin.

Program
Benjamin Britten: Cello Sonata, Op. 65
Johannes Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 99.
Intermission
Conversation with Venki Ramakrishnan, Raman Ramakrishnan, and Benjamin Hochman, moderated by Gene E. Robinson, Director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology; and Julie Gunn, Co-Director of Lyric Theatre at Illinois

Dr. Ramakrishan will give a free lecture, My Adventures in the Ribosome, also on October 10, at 12pm in Foellinger Great Hall.