Princeton University Concerts’ (PUC) 2025-26 season explored the many challenges facing humanity today, including a visionary concert in the Princeton University Chapel, ‘Dies Irae’, by star violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaya, alongside pianist Conrad Tao and several University student, faculty, and staff musicians. Dies Irae—Latin for “Day of Wrath”—raised questions about what humans could and should do (and what they might listen to) if the end of the world as we know it is indeed approaching.
PUC’s Lasting Tracks Challenge brought the questions of ‘Dies Irae’ directly to the University writing and listening community. Contestants were asked to respond to the following prompt: “Imagine it’s the end of the world. What piece(s) of music are you listening to, and why?” There were 31 entrants and many excellent essays submitted that spoke to the sustaining power of music. Princeton University Concerts is pleased to announce that among these submissions, Noa Zilberman, Theoretical Physicist and Associate Research Scholar at the Princeton Gravity Initiative, is the winner of the 2025-26 Lasting Tracks Challenge.
“It was fascinating to see the wide range of music people wanted in their lives at the intimate moments of end of the world,” notes PUC Outreach Manager Dasha Koltunyuk. “Noa Zilberman’s essay is a testament to the power of special music to accompany us through the seasons of our lives and to help us embrace the full experience of being human.”
Zilberman’s interest in music permeates her life. She says, “I do play the piano, and I also enjoy creating small melodies of my own, but my relationship with music goes deeper than that. As a physicist fascinated by the nature of time, I love how music lives in, and makes use of, that elusive fourth dimension.”
Zilberman’s poignant lyrical essay looks at the spiritual essence of music and its importance in shaping our lives to the very end. She writes: “If it is truly the end—if the sun is racing down now toward the point of no return—I would find the largest speakers around and press play on Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, performed by Evgeny Kissin, which I was also fortunate enough to see live. I’ve been listening to that piece since the difficult age of 15, lying on my bedroom carpet, letting it sweep over me like a tornado. Aware of its potency, I have listened to it sparingly ever since, almost afraid of what it might do to me. But the end of the world—well, that’s a special occasion.”
Contest entrants were encouraged to submit their ideal songs for the end of the world to a communal Spotify playlist, which now part of PUC’s Collective Listening Project Library. You can access this playlist and the full Collective Listening Project library at puc.princeton.edu/collective-listening-project.
Noa Zilberman’s winning essay is available at puc.princeton.edu/lasting-tracks-challenge-winning-entries. As Grand Prize Winner, and in honor of her deeply personal musical selection, she received a framed program and ticket stub from a concert given by Rachmaninoff in 1930, signed by him; an autograph by Evgeny Kissin; and Ways of Hearing: Reflections on Music in 26 Pieces, Princeton University Concerts’ anthology published by Princeton University Press. You can find out more about Noa, an avid science communicator, at noazilbermanphysics.com.
