Coronavirus may have silenced our symphony halls, taking away the essential communal experience of the concert as we know it.I spent a couple of hours with Gurnett in his office at the University of Iowa in 2002 the morning of the, and I left filled with a sense of the sheer marvel of the universe. Riley told me he spent a day with the scientist on their first meeting two years earlier, which made the planetary dream collector dream anew.
Before long, “Sun Rings” outgrew NASA’s original commission for a 20-minute quartet and became an evening-length project. It included background space sounds, some triggered via electronic sensors by the string players, a chorus gathered locally for each performance and an elaborate visual design by Willie Williams, who is best known for illuminating big rock shows. Added commissioners, such as the University of Iowa and the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, helped to fund it.
Is that Terry Riley as in The Producer of Babyface?