Harmony of Resilience, Ft. Rey’s Theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, recorded in space and sent to Earth via SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
On Friday, September 13, 2024, Polaris Dawn Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, an accomplished musician, and SpaceX engineer-turned-astronaut, performed Rey’s Theme by composer John Williams on her custom-made violin while in orbit aboard the Dragon spacecraft, launching her campaign to raise support for music education back on Earth. Her music selection, fittingly, was a piece from the film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Gillis was joined in performance by youth musicians from around the world, all of them students in the international El Sistema network of organizations, specifically: the inaugural El Sistema program in Venezuela, The Boston String Academy in the United States, NEOJIBA in Brazil, Dream Orchestra in Sweden, Brass for Africa in Uganda, and BLUME Haiti. The video of their historic performance is the first-of-its-kind downloaded from space via Starlink high-speed internet.
Gillis follows the orbital path of Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, who famously teamed up with Barenaked Ladies to create the first trans-orbital music performance, I.S.S. (Is Someone Singing) in 2013.
Imagine what John Williams felt seeing and hearing this. Then, watch the video and see for yourself. You can see John Williams sitting with the orchestra at the Boston String Academy.
He is pleased.
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