We are pleased to announce that Frans Lanting’s multimedia symphony LIFE: A Journey Through Time with music by Philip Glass will be staged on Saturday, June 18 at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz, California.

Featuring the concepts and imagery of Frans Lanting and the music of Philip Glass, the LIFE Symphony is a one-hour multimedia orchestral production that celebrates the splendor of life on Earth. LIFE interprets the history of life on our planet in seven movements, from its earliest beginnings to its present diversity, in a work that merges the visual and performing arts with life and earth sciences.

“Lanting’s majestic photographs dance lightly across a huge screen over the orchestra, while some of Glass’s most elegant music pulses underneath,” writes The Washington Post. “It’s a celebration of nature in all its glory.”

LIFE was originally produced by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Music Director Marin Alsop, in collaboration with composer Philip Glass, creative director and photographer Frans Lanting, editor Christine Eckstrom, arranger Michael Riesman, and visual designer Alexander V. Nichols.

Since its premiere at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2006, the LIFE Symphony has been performed around the world in major concert halls in London, New York, Amsterdam, and Rome. Now it is returning to Santa Cruz for a special performance by the Santa Cruz Symphony under the baton of Maestro Daniel Stewart.

Frans Lanting has added new images created since the premiere that will make the LIFE Symphony a fresh experience. Prior to the performance, a science panel with leading researchers from UC Santa Cruz–astrophysicist Natalie Batalha, geologist Gary Griggs, geneticist David Haussler, and paleoecologist Paul Koch— will add insights about the evolution of life on Earth. They will be joined onstage by Frans Lanting, who will explain the ideas behind LIFE.

We encourage you to get your tickets soon because this show will sell out.

To purchase tickets go to: tinyurl.com/LIFE-Santa-Cruz

You can watch excerpts from previous LIFE Symphony performances here: https://lanting.com/images/videos/life-a-journey-through-time/

Turn the sound on to hear the music! More tickets have just become available for the performance of our LIFE Symphony with Philip Glass in Liege, Belgium this Saturday January 29 in the gorgeous theatre of the Salle Philharmonique.

The LIFE Symphony celebrates life on Earth from the Big Bang to the present. It is an immersive experience that combines the visual and performing arts.

For ticket info go to https://tinyurl.com/life-oprl.

For more info about LIFE and to see clips from a concert go here https://tinyurl.com/life-symphony.

And if you can’t attend, stay tuned. LIFE will come back to California this summer.

This volcano is one of the images featured in our LIFE symphony with music by Philip Glass which will be performed in Rome, Italy, on Tuesday April 17 as part of the National Geographic Science Festival. LIFE is a celebration of our living planet from the Big Bang to the present. The last movement will be streamed live via the internet around 9.45 PM Italy time.

If you live in Italy, you can also see an interview with Frans on diMartedì, on La7 channel Tuesday at 9:10 PM.

Frans Lanting’s LIFE Symphony will be performed on April 17, 2018, in Rome, Italy

We are pleased to announce that the first ensemble performance of Frans Lanting’s multimedia symphony LIFE: A Journey Through Time with music by Philip Glass will be staged on Tuesday April 17, 2018, at 9:00 pm at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Italy. The performance celebrates the National Geographic Festival della Scienze, which runs from April 16 – 22, 2018, and includes lectures, films, music, and appearances by distinguished scientists.

Featuring the concepts and imagery of Frans Lanting and the music of Philip Glass, the LIFE symphony is a one-hour multimedia orchestral production that celebrates the splendor of life on Earth. LIFE interprets the history of life on our planet in seven movements, from its earliest beginnings to its present diversity, in a work that merges the visual and performing arts with life and earth sciences. “Lanting’s majestic photographs dance lightly across a huge screen over the orchestra, while some of Glass’s most elegant music pulses underneath,” writes The Washington Post. “It’s a celebration of nature in all its glory.”

Tonino Battista will conduct the PMCE Parco della Musica Contemporanea Ensemble in the Sala Sinopoli for this performance of the LIFE symphony, which has been rescored for a smaller musical ensemble by arranger Michael Riesman. A special abridged version of the LIFE symphony will be staged for students from schools in Rome at 11:00 am on Tuesday April 17, 2018. This concert will also be held in the Sala Sinopoli at the Auditorium Parca della Musica.

Since its premiere, LIFE has been performed in major concert halls across North America and Europe, including the Lincoln Center in New York, where it was staged for the opening of the World Science Festival, at London’s Barbican Centre, with Marin Alsop conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund, a performance that was attended by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.

LIFE was originally produced by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Music Director Marin Alsop, in collaboration with photographer Frans Lanting and editor Christine Eckstrom, composer Philip Glass, arranger Michael Riesman, and visual designer Alexander V. Nichols.

Watch excerpts from the LIFE Symphony

Learn more about LIFE: A Journey Through Time