Dazzling pictures of the planets taken by Jet Propulsion Laboratory spacecraft will be featured in a free concert Sunday, May 19, in Pasadena.
The concert by the Pasadena Young Musicians Orchestra will be held in Pasadena City College's Sexson Auditorium, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd., starting at 4 p.m.
While the young musicians perform excerpts from Holst's "The Planets," JPL will present a multimedia show above the stage with pictures captured by the lab's robot spacecraft during the past four decades. JPL is participating in the community outreach event as part of a year-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first spacecraft sent to another planet, JPL's Mariner 2 launched in 1962.
"The wondrous views of other worlds that we have gained from 40 years of visiting them with robotic spacecraft inspire artists, as well as scientists," said Blaine Baggett, JPL's executive manager of communications and education. "We're pleased to have opportunities to collaborate with creative neighbors, such as the members of the Pasadena Young Musicians Orchestra."
The multimedia presentation will focus on the Mars, Jupiter and Venus portions of Holst's work. A dash through a martian canyon, based on images from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, and animations of landings of past and future Mars rovers will accompany Holst's vigorous Mars movement. Jupiter and its diverse large moons will be seen in pictures from the Voyager and Galileo missions, while the Venus segment will feature images from the Magellan mission.
The concert, under the direction of Jo Raquel Stoup, will also include works by Wolfgang Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber, Jean Sibelius and Jack Stamp. About 90 teens from Altadena, Arcadia, Glendale, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Monrovia, Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, South Pasadena and Temple City make up the Pasadena Young Musicians Orchestra. The orchestra is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
For more information about the concert and orchestra, call (626) 797-1994 or visit http://www.pymo.org . Information about missions that JPL manages for NASA is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov . JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
