The founders of a worldwide musical event that bridges far-flung communities together through song will talk about their experiences at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
Global Orchestra founders Charlie Chan and Justin Baird will give a lecture Tuesday, April 3 at 2 p.m. EST in Langley’s Pearl Young Theater as part of the center’s Colloquium Series lecture. They will also give a talk at 7:30 p.m. EST at the Virginia Air and Space Center as part of the Sigma Series of lectures.
The Sigma Series talk is free, while the lecture at Langley is for employees and the news media. Media wishing to attend the Langley lecture should contact Eric Gillard at 757-864-7423 or at eric.s.gillard@nasa.gov by noon EST Tuesday, April 3.
The Global Orchestra’s “Concert for the Planet” incorporates music, education, creativity and technology to create a large-scale event that connects communities around the world. Global Orchestra does this through a novel video streaming mechanism called Conductor-Cam. Conductor-Cam allows participants to play along with the host orchestra at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, bringing everyone together through the global language of music.
An orchestra of more than 70 NASA Langley employees and community members participated in the 2015 Global Orchestra and will do so again for this year’s event Saturday, March 24.
In 2015, the Global Orchestra presented Concert for the Planet during Earth Hour. More than 100,000 participants in more than 200 locations played Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” suite simultaneously, following the live stream from the Sydney Opera House in Australia via Conductor-Cam.
Chan is a composer for feature films, TV series, documentaries, dance and theatre productions, with myriad screen and stage musical credits and several critically celebrated solo albums.
Baird brings more than 20 years of management and high-tech experience, in areas ranging from research and development engineering, analog and digital signal processing, embedded systems development, high-speed digital networks, large-scale entertainment systems, mobile and web application deployment, and interactive multimedia installation technologies.
NASA Langley’s Colloquium and Sigma lectures provide monthly talks and demonstrations related to science and technology. The lectures are intended to stimulate the creative processes of Langley employees and enhance the quality of life at Langley by providing more opportunities for learning. For more information about NASA Langley’s Colloquium and Sigma Series Lectures, visit:
Eric Gillard
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia 23681
757-864-7423
eric.s.gillard@nasa.gov