In March 2020, COVID-19 forced me to cancel a space-inspired performance at the Planetarium & Dome Theater at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Thanks to the Duderstadt Video Studio and their phenomenal team, I was able to realize this program as a virtual concert, featuring musical selections by Urmas Sisask, György Ligeti, Claude Debussy, Missy Mazzoli, and George Crumb, along with stunning visuals from the dome, NASA, and European Southern Observatory. (Four-hand works feature guest pianist Justin Snyder.)

lights in the sky: a [perspective] production

0:00 introduction & history on the project

2:14 intro to the Milky Way Sonata

3:20 Urmas Sisask - The Milky Way Sonata

15:21 intro to Etude No. 5

16:06 Ligeti - Etude No. 5, Arc-en-ciel

20:12 intro to Feux D'artifice

21:00 Debussy - Feux D'artifice

25:58 intro to Orizzonte

26:53 Missy Mazzoli - Orizzonte

32:17 intro to Celestial Mechanics

32:57 George Crumb - Celestial Mechanics I. Alpha Centauri

37:22 intro to The Pleiades

38:24 myth narration - the creation of earth

42:23 Urmas Sisask - The Pleiades I. Electra

43:22 Urmas Sisask - The Pleiades II. Maia

45:05 Urmas Sisask - The Pleiades III. Taygeta

46:15 Urmas Sisask - The Pleiades IV. Alcyone

48:58 Urmas Sisask - The Pleiades V. Merope

49:51 Urmas Sisask - The Pleiades VI. Asterope

50:40 Urmas Sisask - The Pleiades VII. Calaeno

52:03 closing remarks

52:42 credits

PROGRAM & VISUAL INFORMATION

Urmas Sisask - Sonata for Piano 4 Hands, Op. 24 "The Milky Way" (Visual: animated space travel to the milky way galaxy and beyond)

Credit: E&S Digistar

György Ligeti - Etude No. 5, Book I "Arc-en-ciel" (Visual: Hipparcos satellite mission astrometry)

Credit: E&S Digistar

Claude Debussy - Prelude No. 12, Book II "Feux D'artifice" (Visual: solar flares, CMEs/coronal mass ejections)

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Dynamics Observatory Science Team, NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, Virtual Solar Observatory

Missy Mazzoli - Orizzonte (Visual: 360 time-lapse photography of horizons)

Credit: ESO/Eric Freeman

George Crumb - Celestial Mechanics (Makrokosmos IV) I. Alpha Centauri (Visual: formation of the solar system)

Credit: E&S Digistar

Urmas Sisask - Seven Musical Moments "Pleiades" Op. 11 (Myth narration by Melissa Coppola. Estonian Translation by Anne Tkaczyk. Visuals in order of appearance: Pleiades cluster travel, Pleiades cluster zoom, wormhole VJ clip, a reflection nebula in Orion Messier 78, RV Tauri variable, earth's atmosphere, hyperspeed space travel)

Video Credits (in order of movements): Pexels.com, E&S Digistar, ESA/Hubble, Mike Winkelmann/ESO, ESO/M. Kornmesser , NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith, NASA Johnson Space Center, ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser/spaceengine.org