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/