Contemporary classical music can be difficult and inaccessible. It can be boring and repetitive; aggressive and chaotic. Hence the basic idea, for this production, to make the connection with cosmic processes, which range from slow and peaceful to chaotic and violent.

Music for violin and piano by Arvo Pärt, Iannis Xenakis, Philip Glass, and J.S. Bach was picked, and on the basis of spectacular NASA/ESA images, a visual story was constructed to reflect the basic emotions underlying the music.

The astrophysicist/STEM educator Katrien Kolenberg gives the introduction.

Program (70 minutes):

• Introduction by Katrien Kolenberg
• Arvo Pärt, Fratres (1977)
  Video: Human observation and exploration of the cosmos
• Iannis Xenakis, Dikthas (1979)
  Video: time-lapses of violent solar activity; birth of solar systems
• Arvo Pärt, Spiegel im Spiegel (1978)
  Video: the moon and planets
• Philip Glass, Sonata for Violin and Piano (2008)
  Video: stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters
• J.S. Bach, Chaconne from Partita nr. 2 in d (1720; arr. Schumann/Mendelssohn)
  Video: the birth of stars, the death of stars, and a travel from deep time back to planet Earth