Pianist Jeremy Denk will perform the first book of J.S. Bach’s WellTempered Clavier this year at concert halls across the United States, Europe, and the U.K. But before he does, he’s curating and performing in a series of events exploring Bach’s life and his most iconic work as artistinresidence at The Greene Space at WQXR.

Bach is not just teaching us how to compose; he’s teaching us how to think through an idea, meditate on it, dialogue with it. Among composers, he uniquely represents this sense of engaging with the nature of reason itself.

Tonight, Denk wraps his residency with one part discussion, one part listening session, featuring musicians, scientists, philosophers and theologians taking turns explaining what our minds do when we hear Bach.

A winner of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, Denk will draw audiences into the technical, musicological, cultural and philosophical elements involved in his own approach to this deeply personal work, and through this series look at how these timeless themes and shared aspects of the human experience can help to unite us in these divided times.