From Earth to the Cosmos: A Musical Voyage Through Space and Sound
Pianist: Jocelyn Chang, D.M.A., in collaboration with
Michael Shaw, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Attendance details for the concert on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 12:00 PM in Westerbeck Recital Hall (Center for the Arts 140) at Pasadena City College:
No advance ticket reservation is required, and seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. For your convenience, digital daily parking permits are available for purchase at a rate of $2 per day from the yellow parking permit machines located on every level of the parking lots. This performance is part of MUSC 10, Concert Music, a course designed primarily for music majors who attend as part of their coursework. I am able to invite a small number of guests, and it would be my honor to have you join me for the concert.

I am deeply honored to share From Earth to the Cosmos, a multimedia program created in collaboration with Michael Shaw from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has played a leading role in missions that have reached all eight planets and many of their moons, expanding humanity’s reach across the solar system and inspiring generations to look upward and dream beyond.

This project aspires to build bridges between music and science, celebrating the shared spirit of curiosity and wonder that drives both exploration and creation. Through it, I hope to honor how scientific research and innovation enrich our lives and to let music speak as a language of reflection, gratitude, and reverence for the fragile beauty of our world.

I also wish to pay heartfelt tribute to the engineers, scientists, and explorers whose vision, courage, and devotion have expanded humanity’s understanding of the universe. Their tireless pursuit of knowledge continues to inspire deep appreciation, reminding us of the boundless human drive to explore, imagine, and create.

The Earth Prelude by Ludovico Einaudi (b. 1955)
A quiet meditation on the beauty and fragility of our planet. Accompanied by imagery from the International Space Station, orbiting roughly 250 miles above Earth, the music offers a perspective of serenity and vulnerability. The Station, about the size of an American football field, houses a rotating international crew of six astronauts who conduct research on Earth’s atmosphere, environmental systems, and the delicate balance that sustains life.

Man on the Moon by Dennis Korn (b. 1973)
This piece accompanies imagery reflecting one of humanity's most inspiring achievements, the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969. The United States' Apollo program (1961–1972) accomplished six successful lunar landings, concluding with Apollo 17 in 1972. Neil Armstrong's first step and his words, "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind," became a lasting symbol of human courage and collaboration.

Beneath its lyrical beauty, the music carries a tone of quiet melancholy, evoking both the triumph of that historic moment and the profound solitude of standing on another world.

Clair de lune by Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Published in 1905 as the third movement of Suite Bergamasque, Clair de lune (Moonlight) is one of Debussy’s most intimate and contemplative works, evoking the quiet poetry of a walk beneath a silvery sky.

The visualization accompanying this piece was created using a digital 3D model of the Moon built from global elevation maps and image mosaics by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. Originally produced for NASA’s 60th-anniversary celebration in 2018, it follows the Sun across a lunar day, revealing sunrises and sunsets over craters such as Copernicus.

As sunlight glides across the Moon’s ancient surface, shadows recede and return, breathing in rhythm with Debussy’s timeless music. In this convergence of art and science, we glimpse both the beauty and mystery that lie beyond our world.

For more than 50 years after Apollo 17, no human returned to the Moon. The primary reasons were cost, shifting national priorities, and the difficulty of sustaining long‑term lunar operations. NASA's Artemis program is now restoring crewed lunar exploration.

Artemis II, the first crewed flight of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, launched on April 1, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B. The four‑person crew, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, completed a roughly 10‑day lunar flyby. They broke Apollo 13's distance record and reached 252,756 miles from Earth, the farthest humans have ever traveled.

After their historic journey around the Moon, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 10, 2026. They splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, and U.S. Navy recovery teams retrieved them in good condition.

Artemis III, planned for mid‑2027, will conduct rendezvous and docking tests in Earth orbit with commercial lunar landers. Artemis IV, targeted for early 2028, is scheduled to achieve the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17.

Mars, the Bringer of War by Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
arr. David Rubinstein
Scientists believe Mars once had rivers, lakes, and even oceans. In the presentation, you’ll see robots built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory exploring its surface and preparing for future human missions.

Perseverance is a robotic rover that landed on Mars in 2021. It carried a small helicopter called Ingenuity, which became the first aircraft ever to fly on another planet. Initially expected to make only a few flights, Ingenuity completed more than seventy, far surpassing its planned mission and redefining the possibilities of planetary exploration.

Holst’s music mirrors this spirit of discovery through its intensity, rhythm, and dissonance, expressing both conflict and energy. His powerful harmonies accompany imagery from NASA JPL’s decades of Mars exploration:

Mariner 4 (first flyby, 1965)
Viking 1 and 2 (landings, 1976)
Spirit (2004)
Opportunity (2004)
Curiosity (2012)
Perseverance (2021)
Ingenuity helicopter (first powered flight on another planet, 2021)

These missions, developed and operated at JPL in California, embody humanity’s enduring curiosity and determination to explore beyond Earth.

Venus, the Bringer of Peace by Gustav Holst
arr. David Rubinstein
Holst imagined Venus not as a planet of heat and storms but as a timeless image of tranquility. The flowing, luminous lines of the music evoke calm, reflection, and renewal. Within this cosmic journey, Venus offers a moment of stillness, reminding us that beyond the vastness of space lies a sense of harmony and balance that resonates deeply with the human spirit.

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity by Gustav Holst
arr. David Rubinstein
Holst envisioned Jupiter as a planet of overflowing joy, vitality, and expansive energy. Its broad melodies and exuberant rhythms portray the grandeur and generosity of the cosmos, celebrating the sense of awe and wonder that has always inspired humanity to explore the universe.

The accompanying imagery highlights Jupiter’s swirling storms, its Great Red Spot, and its intricate system of moons, worlds that continue to surprise scientists with volcanic activity, subsurface oceans, and dynamic atmospheres.

Black Earth (Kara Toprak) by Fazıl Say (b. 1970)
Fazıl Say’s Black Earth is inspired by the traditional Turkish folk song Kara Toprak (“Black Earth”), written by the celebrated Turkish poet and folk musician Âşık Veysel (1894–1973). Say transforms this melody into a powerful contemporary work for piano.

The composer imitates the sound of the Turkish bağlama by plucking and muting the piano strings inside the instrument, producing an earthy resonance that connects the modern piano with ancient musical traditions.

The visual presentation accompanying this piece draws inspiration from the Red Bull Stratos mission of 2012. Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner (1969–2025) ascended to approximately 39 kilometers (128,100 feet) above Earth in a helium balloon before making a record-setting freefall jump. During his descent he briefly exceeded the speed of sound, becoming the first human to break the sound barrier in freefall.

After traveling outward through the solar system during the program, Black Earth returns us to the ground beneath our feet. The music reflects on humanity’s enduring connection to the planet that sustains us, reminding us that every journey of exploration ultimately leads back to Earth.

The Earth Prelude, Man on the Moon, Clair de lune, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Black Earth trace a journey from our living planet to the Moon, across the solar system, and back to Earth again. Together, they celebrate the shared human spirit that drives both artistic creation and scientific discovery.

May this program inspire curiosity, gratitude, and a renewed sense of wonder for our fragile planet and the infinite cosmos that surrounds it.