Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra opens season with multimedia concert

September 24, 2019

University Relations

The Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra's new season starts Sunday, Oct. 6, at 4 p.m. with its season opener, “Science and Symphony." This multimedia event will feature images and video of the universe, compiled and presented by José Francisco Salgado, with Eduard Zilberkant and the orchestra performing music specially selected to accompany the visuals projected onto the screen over the Davis Hall stage.

Salgado is an Emmy-nominated astronomer, experimental photographer, visual artist and public speaker who creates multimedia works that communicate science in engaging ways. As the executive director and co-founder of KV 265, a nonprofit science and arts education organization, Salgado collaborates with orchestras, composers and musicians to present films that provoke curiosity and a sense of wonder about the Earth and universe.

His "Science and Symphony” films have been presented in more than 175 concerts and have reached a combined audience of more than 275,000 people in concert halls, museums and lecture halls spanning more than 85 cities in 15 countries. Some of the orchestras that have presented these works include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the San Francisco Symphony and the New World Symphony.

As an experimental photographer, Salgado has visited more than 30 scientific sites including the South Pole, Atacama Desert, French Pyrenees and South African Karoo, and he has contributed visuals to documentaries produced for the History, Discovery, BBC and National Geographic channels. As a public speaker, he has given presentations about science and art on all seven continents, including a presentation at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

For the concert in Fairbanks, musical selections include "Claire du Lune" and "Nocturnes," by French composer Claude Debussy; "Blue Danube Waltz," by Johann Strauss II; "Solaris," "Borealis" and "Wondrous Light," by Canadian composer John Estacio; and "Mars and Jupiter" from "The Planets," by Gustav Holst. The concert is  sponsored by Phyllis Pendergrast, Charles W. Lemke and Hannah Summerfelt.

There is a pre-concert lecture at 3 p.m. with Salgado and Zilberkant. For tickets and more information, please visit the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra website.