“ ‘Star Trek’ composer Michael Giacchino has written a concert work commemorating the 60th anniversary of NASA,” writes Jon Burlingame in Thursday’s (5/31) Variety.com. The National Symphony Orchestra premiered the piece on June 1 at the Kennedy Center, led by Associate Conductor Emil de Cou. “Giacchino, composer of the three feature films in the rebooted ‘Star Trek’ franchise and of ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,’ calls the 11-minute work ‘Voyage.’ It’s a musical description of ‘what is going through your mind when you wake up on the morning of a launch, going out to the pad, being buckled in, waiting for launch, blasting off, weightlessness, reaching your destination, and coming home,’ says the longtime space buff…. Actor John Cho, who plays Sulu in the ‘Star Trek’ films, [introduced] the piece.… De Cou [conducted] the Giacchino work and other space-themed music.… Singer-songwriters Grace Potter and will.i.am, and writer Nick Sagan (the son of ‘Cosmos’ creator and famed astronomer Carl Sagan) [were] also slated to appear. Giacchino calls this piece ‘a precursor to a longer piece I’m writing for’ … the 50th anniversary of the July 1969 moon landing.… It too is a joint commission by NASA and the National Symphony Orchestra.”
Posted June 5, 2018
