MOONRISE: Going full circle

Posted on Sunday, October 30

MOONRISE: Going full circle with José Francisco Salgado
By Don Macica
Chicago based writer and arts marketing consultant

As a third grader in San Juan, Puerto Rico, José Francisco Salgado found a book about the space program and the first manned mission to the moon. Fascinated, he began to devour everything he could find on the subject of space. He didn’t learn the word ‘astronomy’ for a few more years.

On November 5 & 7, the Chicago Sinfonietta will present the world premier of his new film Moonrise, accompanied by suites from Maurice Ravel’s ballet masterpiece Daphnis et Chloé. Salgado is now an internationally regarded astronomer, photographer, and filmmaker. How Salgado got from Puerto Rico to here is a story of remembering and not abandoning childhood dreams.

“I was fascinated the science and technology as well as the pictures from the surface of the moon” says Salgado. “I also loved the diagrams of the rockets. And that was it. I made up my mind that I wanted to study space.”

That’s one career path.

“In seventh grade” he continues, “I became interested in National Geographic photography and the idea of traveling around the world and communicating information about the world through pictures.” Thus motivated, he began to teach himself photography. In high school, he became (like most teenagers) interested in music, learning bass guitar and playing in bands while earning a B.S. in physics at the University of Puerto Rico.

When he arrived at the University of Michigan for his doctoral work, two things were happening. The first was that the advent of digital photography, the internet, the Apple computer and software like Photoshop began to open up new ways of communication. Secondly, ‘outreach’ became the buzzword in the scientific community. And so it was that Dr. José Francisco Salgado, upon earning his PhD in astronomy, was hired by the Adler Planetarium to create the 21st Century equivalent of that space book that he found back in San Juan.

While at Adler, says Salgado “I started experimenting with things that were purely art, not just technical illustration, but working with the idea of combining astronomical images with photographs of landscapes that I had taken. I wanted to create something that would get people’s attention, and then communicate some science.”

A third piece fell into place in 2005, when the Chicago Sinfonietta approached Adler about the use of images to accompany a performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The project was given to Salgado, who seized the opportunity to go one step further. “Ah-ha,” he thought, “this is my chance to teach myself video, film, and motion graphics.” He proposed that, rather than static images or a simple slide show, a film be created that would synchronize with the music in a true collaboration. “I respect music so much that I wanted to create something that modeled the tone and the tempo. I didn’t want to do something that subtracted. I wanted to reinforce the music and enhance the concert experience.”

The Sinfonietta premiered The Planets with Salgado’s film in May 2006 and it was an immediate smash. The film features awe-inspiring images, historical illustrations, NASA and European Space Agency animations, as well as science visualizations produced by Salgado. It, along with a second Salgado/Sinfonietta production (Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition) has since been presented more than 50 times in 13 countries, including collaborations with the Boston Pops and Buzz Aldrin, the San Francisco Symphony, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Torino. An encore Sinfonietta Planets performance at Millennium Park in 2008 drew an audience estimated at 11,000 people.

This, finally, brings us to Moonrise. At some point around the conclusion of work on Pictures at an exhibition he decided that he wanted to create something entirely of his own photography rather than relying on images from NASA and other sources. He landed upon the idea of the moon, and dedicated his third “science and symphony” project to it.

“I wanted to make a film about humankind’s fascination with the moon. Not just the moon as an astronomical body, but conveying the romantic aspects, the beauty and the feelings that it evokes.” Ravel’s ballet score was selected to help convey that romance.

He began to travel the world with his camera, eventually taking countless pictures in dozens of places, including Chile’s Atacama Desert (home of five international observatories due to its ideal climate and location far from intrusive light), several regions in Canada and the US, Puerto Rico, Portugal, and even here in Chicago. This time around, it was Salgado and his newly formed KV 265, a non-profit organization whose mission is the communication of science through art, that approached the Chicago Sinfonietta. The orchestra accepted, and work on Moonrise began in earnest.

He is especially excited to be working with new Sinfonietta Music Director Mei-Ann Chen, who led a performance of Pictures recently with the Memphis Symphony. “I know it is in great hands with Mei-Ann” he says warmly. Moonrise is already slated for a second performance next March in Portugal.

“Moonrise, for me, puts it all together” says Salgado of the way he has combined his professional training as an astronomer with his early interest in photography and music. “All the things I dreamed of in Puerto Rico… if I had abandoned the things I enjoyed as a child, I would never have gotten to make Moonrise.”

Moonrise will be the centerpiece of ‘Under the Night Sky’, a cosmically themed Chicago Sinfonietta presentation that will also feature the Chicago premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra, and Antonín Dvořák’s Rusulka: Song to the Moon.

Saturday, November 5
Naperville

Monday, November 7
Chicago

For more concert information Click HERE