One of the original reasons for starting this entire interview series was that I noticed that there were often so many scientists in orchestras. A friend of mine was in one orchestra where, by coincidence, all four clarinetists were chemists. So it always seemed too obvious and easy to interview someone I knew through music. Of course they did music, and of course they did science, because there are several in every orchestra. So until now, I’ve only interviewed people I knew through science, or through other science contacts. But I’m finally breaking that habit here with an interview with Andrew Lawrie.
I know Andrew through the City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, where he is co-leader, but he also plays with several other Cambridge ensembles, such as the Vivace Ensemble, which recently toured Germany. When not playing violin, Andrew is a research fellow at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, where he studies molecular mixing. In this fragment of the interview he talks about, among other things, working a summer job that perfectly combined his music and engineering background.
[audio:http://easternblot.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/interview-andrew-lawrie.mp3|titles=Interview Andrew Lawrie](Apologies for the kitchen noises in the background of this interview. Yes, I’m aware of how ironic that makes the part about sound quality…)
