January 28, 2026
SIU’s Jan. 31 Yellow Moon Gyroid Concert is a ‘String Music Matinee’
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale will host the first concert of 2026 in the Yellow Moon Gyroid Concert Series on Saturday, Jan. 31, in Morris Library’s third-floor rotunda.
The free, public concert begins at 3 p.m. The program, “String Music Matinee,” will feature performances by musicians who have previously appeared in the series, which was established in fall 2024.
The performers are Noah Brown, who earned his master’s degree at SIU Carbondale and is now a doctoral candidate in viola performance at the University of Illinois; Lorenna Brown, Noah’s wife, a violinist who previously performed duet pieces in the series; Gabriel Pereira Vieira, a graduate master’s student in violin in the SIU School of Music, who is studying under Michael Barta, a professor of violin and chamber music, and series co-founder Reiko Schoen on piano.
The first half of the program will consist of Bohemian composers’ music — four romantic pieces for violin and piano by Czech composers Antonin Dvořák and violin and viola duet in C Major by Johann Kalliwoda. The second half of the program will be viola and piano music by German Robert Schumann and Englishmen Ralph Vaughan Williams and Frank Bridge.
“I am extremely delighted to welcome back Noah and Lorenna in this concert and to be performing with Noah and Gabriel again,” Schoen said.
A QR code and a limited number of full concert programs will be available at the event.
Schoen is a member of the Federation of National Music Clubs, and she had the Music Sprouts piano studio in Carbondale for 31 years before retiring in May 2025. She is also a member of the SIU Symphony Orchestra.
Series began in fall 2024
This is the third concert this season in the series, which was established by Schoen and cellist William Cernota, an assistant lecturer in the SIU School of Music. The series honors Schoen’s late husband, SIU Carbondale professor Alan Schoen, who discovered the gyroid in 1968 while working for NASA. The rotunda is home to Yellow Moon Gyroid made in Schoen’s honor by algorithmic artist Jesse Louis-Rosenberg.
A gyroid is an infinitely connected periodic minimal surface with no straight lines; a minimal surface has the smallest area possible within a given boundary. Schoen, a physicist, mathematician and computer scientist, taught at SIU Carbondale from 1973 to 1996.
Reiko Schoen said she is grateful to SIU Library Affairs Dean William Walters for accommodating a Saturday concert for the guest musicians and to Richard Kelley, School of Music director, and current yearly sponsors for supporting the concert series.
For information regarding the performance or becoming a yearly sponsors for any amount, contact Reiko Schoen at reikotaka@gmail.com. For information about the School of Music, visit the School of Music website.