ASU, Symphony Undertake Solar System Mission
The Phoenix Symphony prepares to lift off into the Solar System as it taps into the resources of the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration on Jan. 10 for a musical and technological look into the heavens.
Guests will take a musical voyage through the Solar System as Virginia G. Piper Music Director Michael Christie and The Phoenix Symphony perform Gustav Holst’s composition “The Planets – and HD Odyssey,” featuring images from the Mars Rovers, and other NASA and JPL footage from various missions.
The presentation is an ASU Foundation Presidential Engagement Programs (PEP) special event. It begins at 6 p.m. with an exclusive reception/presentation at Symphony Hall.
Kip Hodges, director of ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, will speak to PEP ticket holders about the solar system and how discoveries since the premiere of Holst’s work in 1919 have changed the way we think of the planets around our sun. Hodges was recently recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science with the Science (journal) Prize for inquiry-based instruction.
Symphony Principal Timpanist Bruce Pulk will give a musician’s perspective of Holst’s astronomical observations.
Following the reception, guests will make their way to the concert hall where Christie will lead the symphony and the women of the Phoenix Symphony Chorus in a performance of “The Planets,” accompanied by the projection of high-resolution, 3-D images from NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope.
– NASA photo
