Professor Brian Foster presented his lecture entitled “Einstein’s Universe” at the Municipal Theatre, Napier, on Tuesday 16 July. He was accompanied by violinist Jack Liebeck. Their illustrated talk covered the grand sweep of modern physics – from Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs Boson – illustrated with the violin music that Einstein loved to play.

Widely acclaimed in the press and featured on the BBC, Brian and Jack have presented the illustrated talk Einstein’s Universe around the world and toured New Zealand in July 2013.

Brian Foster is Professor of Experimental Physics at Oxford and Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the University of Hamburg. He is European Director of the Linear Collider Collaboration at CERN, Switzerland.

Jack Liebeck, ‘Young British Performer of the Year’ and founder of The Fibonacci Sequence, has established a reputation as one of Europe’s most exciting young violinists. He has appeared in major venues across Europe and recorded to enormous critical acclaim both on CD and with the BBC. Jack plays the ‘Ex-Wilhelmj’ Guadagnini dated 1785.

The lecture was followed at the same venue by a concert of chamber music that Einstein played and loved. This special event was organised by Chamber Music New Zealand and the Royal Society of New Zealand.  It featured Jack Liebeck, Victoria Sayles (violin), Julia Joyce (viola), Andrew Joyce (cello) and Stephen De Pledge (piano). The music was varied, with different combinations of members in each of four main sets.