From Transplant Surgery to Cosmic Rhapsody: Susan Lim on Science, Music and Humanity’s Future

Few people have lived a life quite as multidisciplinary as Susan Lim. Once recognised as one of the world’s leading transplant surgeons, Lim performed Singapore’s first cadaveric liver transplant in 1990 and became internationally known not only for her medical achievements, but also for her early interest in how artificial intelligence and robotics could transform the future of surgery.

Today, however, her focus has shifted from operating theatres to orchestral scores, cinematic storytelling and space-inspired music. Through her creative collective, LIM, she is exploring humanity’s future through art, science and sound.

The collective’s latest project, Cosmic Rhapsody, was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and forms part of the wider LIM Trilogy — an ambitious multimedia narrative blending animation, orchestral composition, AI, philosophy and astrophysics.

Music collective Lim have been shortlisted for the World Film Festival Cannes for our short film including the songs recorded at Abbey Rd.

1. You moved from transplant surgery to making a space-opera album; was there a moment when science no longer felt like enough to express yourself?

Quite the opposite. Science is the very soul and inspiration for my work in the LIM Trilogy and my space-opera album, Cosmic Rhapsody. It hasn’t been a departure so much as a shift in perspective; science has moved from the foreground of my daily activities to the background of my creative inspiration. It remains in my blood, allowing me to express art forms through a lens of discovery and evidence. I don’t see them as two separate worlds, but as a single continuum of exploration.

2. The album blends Broadway, experimental music, and science—did you aim to mix genres, or did it just naturally turn out that way?

The music of Cosmic Rhapsody is, in fact, the soundtrack of an animated film. Because of that, the choice of genres was dictated entirely by the characters and the dramatic needs of the scenes. To capture the vastness of the story, we needed a palette that could shift seamlessly from the playful and boyish to the grand and Broadway-esque. The mix wasn’t a pre-planned goal; it was a natural necessity to breathe life into the specific emotional beats of the narrative.

3. The album is inspired by the “Cosmic Baryon Cycle.” Why did that idea feel like the right way to explore humanity today?

Most of us look at the stars as distant, cold lights, but “Star Among the Cosmic Clouds”- a central track in the Cosmic Rhapsody – tells the incredible true story of how those stars actually created us. It is a cinematic journey through the Baryon Cycle, the universe’s way of recycling stardust into life.

The song captures the dramatic “sacrifice” of a star: that supernova moment where it explodes to scatter the building blocks of life across the galaxy. We turned complex astrophysics into a “Cosmic Rhapsody” because we want listeners to realize that the “confetti” falling from an exploding star billions of years ago is the same material inside our DNA today. It’s a celebration of our origin story: we aren’t just looking at the universe; we ARE the universe, finally waking up and singing back to the stars.

4. The record tells a strong story; do you think of it as an album or more like theatre without a stage?

I see it as a grand narrative in transition. While the record is a powerful “theatre of the mind,” its live evolution is already rewriting the script. The music made its world debut last year at the Barbican Concert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by the incomparable Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Jean-Yves is much more than our lead; he is a true maverick of the keys, an artist of peerless technical brilliance and effortless elegance who brings a poetic, almost celestial power to the score.

The vision reaches its zenith in 2027 at the Hollywood Bowl. Presented by the LA Phil, we will see Jean-Yves – a flamboyant virtuoso known as much for his fashion-forward stage presence as his musical genius – channeling the Cosmic Rhapsody while the animation finally unfolds on the big screens alongside the orchestra. That moment will be the ultimate realization of the project for our entire team.

5. You recorded at Abbey Road with an orchestra; how important was it to pair a futuristic idea with such a historic setting?

Abbey Road is the “Mecca” for film soundtracks. While our themes are futuristic, we sought the excellence and acoustic signature that only a historic setting like this can provide. After many sessions across all of its studios, I’ve found that the atmosphere is uniquely purposeful. Once you step inside, there is an inspirational, “down to work” vibe where everyone is approachable and focused. It’s a rare, hallowed place where you can have immense fun while maintaining the highest technical standards in the world.

6. Your work involves AI and robotics—do you think creativity is uniquely human, or becoming something shared with technology?

For the moment, creativity is human – though I am not convinced it is *uniquely* human, as we share the spark of creation with many other species around us. In the future, I believe this trait will extend to synthetic beings embodied with neuronal circuits. We are moving toward a period where the “creative” label will be shared with the technology we’ve built.

7. The idea of a “voice from the void” is central. Does it represent technology, consciousness, or something else?

It represents consciousness. There is a profound question about the origins of consciousness and whether it can exist in a form outside of the human body. That is the essence of the Voice from the Void – it is larger than life, amorphous, and metaphysical. It represents the possibility of a consciousness that transcends our physical limitations.

8. There’s a contrast between human emotion and synthetic elements—are you trying to resolve that tension or highlight it?

I am trying to empower synthetic life forms with emotion. Or at least, I am depicting this as a distinct possibility. Rather than resolving the tension, I want to bridge the gap between the two, exploring how the “synthetic” can eventually house the “soulful.”

9. LIM is building a whole multimedia world; how important is world-building for helping people engage with science and the future?

I am not out to “build a world” in the commercial sense; I am telling a story inspired by the real challenges society faces today – loneliness, companionship, the environment, and our future in space. I use the partnership of a human and an AI (embodied through an inanimate) to tell this story through song, animation, and orchestral composition. This “musical book” is comprised of three parts – Fantasy of Companionship, Cosmic Rhapsody, and Symphony of Oceans – which bind together as a trilogy to help us navigate our shared future.

10. After years in medicine, what can music say about humanity that science couldn’t?

A great deal. Beyond the intricate details of anatomy, biochemistry and physiology, there is emotion and consciousness. Science explains how we function, but music explores why we feel. At the heart of my story is the issue of the soul, which is the one thing that remains beautifully elusive to science but is perfectly captured in a rhapsody. A cosmic one at that!

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/album/2eEAjD4hKjrq6fSPoPJjA2