As a kid, Jadon Geathers, ’24, realized that competing in taekwondo wasn’t a good fit for him, and instead took up piano. At Stanford, he had a similar revelation about his initial major of physics.

Go to the web site to view the video.

Harry Gregory

The classical pianist is a coterminal student in math and computer science at Stanford, while continuing to share his art with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

“I was fascinated by the connections between physics and music,” he said. “When I realized that maybe the formalized study of physics wasn’t really for me, I jumped over to mathematics.”

In doing so, Geathers discovered the striking parallels between art and math, which are often regarded as disparate fields.

“There’s so much beauty in the visual representations of mathematical objects. And similarly in music, there’s so much beauty in the colors and textures that arise from different combinations of chords, different melodic statements,” he said. “I think math and music complement each other in that sense.”

Geathers encourages other students to try new things to find what fits them.

“Stanford has plenty of opportunities for students to explore their interests and understand what they may be attracted to or what may not really be the right path for them,” he said.