Professor

Gresham College Lecture Series. Sleep and music share a strange, elusive magic – both shape our lives profoundly yet slip beyond words. Lullabies soothe us into slumber, nocturnes and reveries evoke the twilight world between wakefulness and dreams. Some melodies even emerge from sleep itself – McCartney’s ‘Let It Be’ and Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata came to their composers in dreams. Yet sleep has its own music: the phasing rhythms of wake and rest, the cadences of falling asleep, the waveforms of EEG data – an unheard music to which we may awaken. Watch online or attend in person.

Music of Sleep and Dreams

LSO St Luke's

Gresham College Lecture Series. Music and biology are profoundly entwined. The heart beats, footsteps fall into familiar tempi, and even the movement of our limbs follows a natural rhythmic hierarchy. The rise and fall of breath, the cadence of laughter, and the wail of a cry all carry musical gestures. Yet our bodies do not just dictate music, they respond to it, from calming stress to thrilling chills. Beyond this, the biological world itself pulses with music: DNA sequences become melody, disease growth swells into an orchestral crescendo, and a hidden music emerges from within us.

Music of the Body

Gresham College lecture series. Where does music live in the mind? Is it an evolutionary byproduct, a trick of perception, or something deeper? Explores whether music is a fleeting illusion or the key to understanding the mind itself.

Music of the Mind

Gresham College Lecture Series lecture exploring jazz as a musical style and a way of thinking, revealing the hidden frameworks behind improvisation. Watch online or attend in person.

Professor

Milton Mermikides

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 21, 2027

What is Jazz? · London Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Jun 19, 2026

Music of Sleep and Dreams · London Symphony Orchestra

May 13, 2026

Music of the Body · London Symphony Orchestra

About

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