Approximately 100 members of the Emory Radiology and Imaging Sciences family braved sunshine and warm fall temperatures to gather for the 2016 Weens Lecture. Held on October 20^th in the School of Medicine, the 2016 Weens lecture featured Evans Mirageas, the vice-president for artistic planning and operations at The Atlanta Symphony and the Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Opera. His talk, See/Hear, explored the musical synaesthetic power of art, or how musicians create the auditory equivalents of sculptures and paintings.

With musical examples and reproductions of the works that inspired them, Mirageas examined the varied ways composers past and present sought to render what we see into something we hear.

Audience members nodded their heads in recognition as Mirageas noted birdsong in Beethoven’s “6^th Symphony Pastoral”: the flute trilling like the nightingale, the oboe calling as a quail, and the clarinet clucking as the cuckoo. They also marveled at the more direct connection between pictures and music with Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” which interprets in ten movements ten disparate drawings by fellow Russian Viktor Hartmann, a painter and an architect.

The attendees weren’t the only ones to enjoy the evening. The next morning, Mirageas swiftly penned heartfelt thanks. “It was an honor and pleasure to deliver the Weens lecture last night,” he wrote. “The set up was superb and I felt welcomed and well looked after. My nervousness dissipated nearly immediately on the first small laugh I elicited from the attentive audience.”

“Every year, the Weens Lecture brings together the Emory Radiology and Imaging Sciences family, including alumni, for an enjoyable evening celebrating the creative and transformational power of the image,” says Carol Dowdle, who is responsible for organizing the annual event.  “We were thrilled with Evans’ dynamic presentation and with the way the audience responded to him.”

 The Heinz S. Weens Lecture is held each fall in memory of Dr. Heinz S. Weens, the first chairman of the Department of Radiology and a pioneer in the field of radiology.  Dr. Weens was an innovative researcher, engaged physician and inspiring mentor who embodied the department’s tripartite mission of clinical care, education, and research.

Planning for the 2017 Weens Lecture already is underway. Send suggestions for presenters to carol.dowdle@emory.edu.