Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra opens season with multimedia concert
September 24, 2019
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.