What happens when you cross a Nobel prize-winning geneticist with one of New York’s most sought after jazz quintets? Genes & Jazz. Part jazz concert, part scientific talk by one of the world’s finest scientific minds, completely original.

Genes & Jazz is where the seemingly dichotomous worlds of science and the arts meet.

Dr. Harold Varmus won the Nobel Prize in 1989 for his work on the proto-oncogene, which enhanced our understanding of cancer. His son, jazz trumpeter Jacob is the leader of the Jacob Varmus Quintet. Together they explore the ways that genes and notes affect complex organisms and compelling music. The father-son duo compares cell biology to the development of musical composition.

The Indian Summer Festival brings the world to Vancouver through a series of provocative, multi-arts events featuring international visionaries and minds. We’re pushing boundaries and inviting audiences and artists to meet at the intersection of art and science, music and genetics, the ordinary and the extraordinary.