SIU’s Morris Library hosts second concert in Yellow Moon Gyroid series Nov. 6

October 24, 2024

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The second performance of the Yellow Moon Gyroid Concert Series at Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Morris Library on Nov. 6 will have a "Music Palette" program, featuring a variety of music and students from the SIU School of Music, along with highlighting the talents of the Carbondale Community High School Choir and the Carterville High School varsity singers.

The concert is at 7 p.m. in the library's third-floor rotunda. Admission is free, and a reception will follow.

The series was established earlier this year by William Cernota, an assistant lecturer in SIU's School of Music, and Reiko Schoen, whose late husband, SIU Carbondale professor Alan Schoen, discovered the gyroid. The series' inaugural concert was Sept. 19.

School of Music students set to perform include masters' students Myagmartseren Chinbaatar with a Mongolian harp yatga solo; Julia Mrazek on clarinet accompanied by local pianist Anita Hutton, a retired assistant to the dean in SIU's College of Liberal Arts; a guitar ensemble and solos by senior Myles Daniels, sophomore Annabella Reed, freshman Harrison Braddy and SIU student Tracy Hosmon-Kaytor. The concert will also include returning performers Noah Brown, a graduate master's student on viola and guest violinist Lorenna Brown.

The Carbondale Community High School Choir is under the direction of SIU School of Music alumna Katrina Wood, while Carlyn Zimmerman, also an SIU School of Music alumna, directs the Carterville High School choral group.

The rotunda is home to Yellow Moon Gyroid made by algorithmic artist Jesse Louis-Rosenberg, honoring Schoen's 1968 discovery while working for NASA.

A gyroid is an infinitely connected periodic minimal surface with no straight lines; a minimal surface has the smallest area possible within a given boundary. Schoen, a physicist, mathematician and computer scientist, taught at SIU Carbondale from 1973 to 1996.

Reiko Schoen is a piano teacher, member of the Illinois State Music Teachers Association and longtime supporter and collaborator with the School of Music.