Project Director
David Ibbett, Ph.D. is a composer, educator and musical advocate for science. His lifelong passion for science began with his father, Dr. Roger Ibbett, who is a research chemist in Nottingham, UK
In 2020, David was the first Guest Composer at Fermilab, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. In 2023, he was named the first Resident Composer at Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.
Read about David’s work in Nature “The Sound of Stars”
David is Assistant Professor of Music at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and maintains a close association with Berklee College of Music.
David composes electrosymphonic music: a fusion of classical and electronic styles that interweaves influences from songs, symphonies, pop, rock and electronica. Musical strands are met with inspiration from the work of scientists: sonified data, musical metaphors for scientific concepts, and experimental sound and images from contemporary research.
In all projects, David seeks a deep collaboration with musicians, scientists, artists and performers. He has worked with with physicists (Dr. Mathew Kleban, NYU), biologists (Dr. Paul Garrity, Brandeis), engineers (Dr. Irmgard Bischofberger, MIT), sociologists (Dr. Clara Han, Johns Hopkins), astrophysicists (Dr. Priya Natarajan, Yale) and oceanographers (Dr. Sarah Davies, BU). Recent works include Cellular Dance (2019) a ballet on a theme of cell movement with biologist Alexey Veraksa of UMass Boston, Octave of Light (2020) an album of exoplanet music with Roy Gould of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Black Hole Symphony (2022) an orchestral journey to the heart of a black hole galaxy for the Charles Hayden Planetarium, Museum of Science, Boston.
David studied at Clare College Cambridge with Giles Swayne, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Julian Anderson, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham (UK) with Jonty Harrison and Scott Wilson. His fascination with electronic music began in 2008 when he undertook a residency at the Aldeburgh Music Festival with Jonathan Harvey – an inspirational teacher and pioneer in the field. In 2014 he moved from London to Boston, USA, where he lives with his wife Sarah, son Lawrence and daughter Eleanor.
Science Officer
Dr. hab. Anna Barnacka is the founder and CEO of MindMics, Inc. where she invented a breakthrough technology for cardiovascular system monitoring. Anna finished her NASA Einstein Fellowship at Harvard in 2018 and transitioned from astrophysics to startups. She has a broad experience in signal processing, data analysis, and modeling, as well as, building infrastructures and instrumentations for systems requiring rocket science and cosmic precision.
Her interests span from black holes through to the brain and biological systems.
Climate Project Producer
Megan Conley was raised in a musical family in Austin, Texas. She performed on the Grammy Award-winning album ‘Los Super Seven’ at age 15. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study harp in Paris, France and moved to New York City in 2009, performing regularly with the NYC Ballet, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, and as a substitute harpist for the Broadway show ‘The Fantasticks.’
Megan is the harpist of The Knights, a Brooklyn-based chamber orchestra. She served as Principal Harpist of the Houston Symphony from 2015-2022. In 2021, Megan founded a nonprofit called Ocean Music Action. This organization presents chamber music concerts paired with volunteer actions focused on conservation. Learn more at www.oceanmusicaction.org.
Megan lives in Hawaii with her husband, bassist/composer Shawn Conley, and their young son.
Visual Artist in Residence
Raquel Fornasaro is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, oil paintings, sculpture, installation, digital art, and land art. Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, her artistic practice is rooted in the examination of the relationship between urban development and the environment, with a critical focus on the implications of our colonial capitalist economic system.
Currently based in Boston, her work has graced galleries, universities, and museums, including the Brazilian Consulate in Boston, Harvard's Crossings Gallery, the FSU Museum of Fine Arts, MIT's Media Lab, the Tioga Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fornasaro is a passionate supporter of STEAM education, frequently collaborating with scientists to seamlessly weave scientific elements into her artistic expression. This harmonious blend of science and art serves as a powerful lens through which she reflects on our values and the urgent ecological challenges we face in the present day. Rooted in symbolism, mythology, and allegory, her work explores themes of beauty, decay, and the intricate interplay between urban and natural elements. Her overarching goal is to not only inform but also to inspire and empower viewers, encouraging them to become catalysts for positive change.
Young Audiences Producer
Weronika Balewski is a flutist, Dalcroze & Integrative educator, and arts leader. She is dedicated to creating engaging musical experiences which build connection, relationships, and community. She is the Flutist and Co-Founder of Marvento Duo and performs on both modern and Baroque flutes with Multiverse Concert Series, Brookline Symphony Orchestra, and various other groups in the Boston area. Weronika is on the Flute and Musicianship Faculty at Concord Conservatory of Music, a Teaching Artist with Integral Steps, and teaches flute lessons and piano lessons in her private studio in Waltham.
Bay Area Producer
Amir Bitran, Ph.D. is a scientist and internationally-renowned composer driven by his passions towards uncovering the basic physics governing life, and distilling rich scientific ideas to a broad public through music. Born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1993 and raised in a trilingual household, Amir’s dual passions and musical idiom where shaped by his upbringing under his mother—a cognitive scientist and Northeastern University professor originally from Israel-- and his father—a Mexican-American violinist and member of the Grammy-award winning Cuarteto Latinoamericano. Amir’s early scientific research as a Biophysics PhD student at Harvard University was aimed at understanding how DNA is organized into elaborate chromatin structures that ensure different genes get turned “on” or “off” in different cells—a process whose faulty regulation often causes cancer. This work inspired Amir’s composition, “When DNA Makes Loops”, that was premiered at the Salle Cortot in Paris by members of the the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France as part of the first iteration of the Muse-IC project—a unique initiative that commissioned six renowned composers to write pieces inspired by cutting-edge research.
His current research as a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley aims to understand how proteins in our cells acquire the molecular structures that allow them to perform their diverse functions, while avoiding improper structures linked to diseases such as Alzheimer’s. This work inspired Amir’s “Dance of the Nascent Chain”, a boogie-woogie for piano that portrays how a protein dynamically “folds” into its structure that was premiered at the Boston Museum of Sciene in May 2022. Beyond his main research areas, Amir has composed works inspired by myriad scientific and natural topics that have been performed by renowned ensembles including the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Grammy-award Parker Quartet, the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and the Cuarteto Q-Arte. These works include a chamber piece about the International Space Station, a string octet based on nocturnal tropical bird calls that was premiered in Bogotá, Colombia in February 2020, a work for solo cello and electronics inspired by polymer networks, and a set of string miniatures inspired by the development of an embryo, which will be premiered in April 2022 as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston.
Promotion and Media
Corinne DeCost Brown graduated Suffolk University with a BA in public relations and double minor in English Literature and Theatre Arts. While there, she founded the school's sketch comedy troupe (now running 12+ years) as well as a social media campaign driven to promote arts & culture on campus. She was awarded College of Arts and Sciences Student of the Year her senior year, and has recently been named one of the 10 Under 10 by their alumni association.
Corinne has directed sketch comedy shows at Improv Boston, hosted shows in Boston & Los Angeles, and appeared on various podcasts. Corinne is a lyricist and lead singer of the rock band The Floating Lighthouse, and released an EP of original songs, Again We Meet at Last, in 2019.
Corinne is also a teaching artist. She previously taught theatre at Yamaha Music School of Boston, and now lives in Los Angeles and works with Upstage Theatre Schools teaching theatre arts to children in schools and community centers across Los Angeles county.
Finally, Corinne is an actress. She has appeared onstage and off in over 40 stage productions. Corinne spent a year performing with Netflix's Stranger Things Experience in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The opening coincided with the drop of season four and Corinne filmed commercial and TV spots and performed for over 900 audiences in that year. She also performed at Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights as Ellie Williams - chosen by gaming company Naughtydog to represent their IP to tens of thousands of guests every night and to millions online on IGN, Good Mythical Morning, and on various socials. Corinne has appeared on various TV shows in the last few years - including the Wendy Williams Show and Nick Cannon Show - and you can see her in the background of movies, shows, and commercials produced by the likes of Disney, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, and Marvel Studios. She's also currently working on her first indie feature, and an indie horror short - so keep your eyes out.
You can find her online anywhere @CorinneDeCost
Multimedia Development Intern
Wilson Gramer is a computer science student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He joined the Multiverse Concert Series in June 2023 under WPI professor and Multiverse director David Ibbett's mentorship to create the Multiverse Concert App, scheduled to debut at the upcoming Mars Symphony at the Museum of Science in Boston. By downloading the app, audience members turn their smartphones into speakers; performers on stage direct audio throughout the space to create a dynamic, interactive soundscape where the audience becomes part of the performance.
In addition to the Multiverse Concert Series, Wilson works on mobile app development at Make Directory. He is passionate about programming and teaching others, and is building a programming language named Wipple designed to help students learn to code while exploring math, science, art, and music at the same time. In his free time, Wilson enjoys running and playing the piano.
Website: https://gramer.dev
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilson-gramer-a25260255