

Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
“You can have majesty, wistfulness, and ethereality coexist,” he [Dehlinger] said. “You know you’re dealing with wonderful material when it can elicit more than one emotion.” - “Looking for Art in the James Webb Telescope”

Cosmic Cycles, A Space Symphony is an immersive film-with-orchestra concert experience that combines Henry Dehlinger’s much acclaimed suite of seven symphonic poems inspired by space with NASA’s stunning science imagery and data visualizations of the Sun, Earth, Moon, Planets, and Cosmos, projected in HD on a giant screen.
Composed in close collaboration with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and its Scientific Visualization Studio, and commissioned by National Philharmonic, Cosmic Cycles is a bold and evocative journey through the Cosmos that touches humanity’s desire to explore the unknown.

An Epic Journey
Conductor Piotr Gajewski, NASA producers Wade Sisler and Scott Weisinger, and artistic operations director Kyle Schick join composer Henry Dehlinger to discuss Cosmic Cycles, A Space Symphony.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Praise
"Dehlinger's music does wonders...an unexpected emotional punch"
“a harmonically rewarding wander through the stars”
"A grand seven-movement narrative arc"
“an astral symphony that promises to leave stargazers in awe of both space and classical music”
— DCist
"the ultimate blend of art and science…inspired and illustrated by NASA's latest mind-boggling images"
"an immersive experience that encapsulates both visuals and sound"
"a groundbreaking collaboration among acclaimed composer Henry Dehlinger, NASA, and the National Philharmonic"
“Awe-inspiring NASA visuals combined with the might of a live symphonic orchestra last week in Cosmic Cycles”
— NASA.gov

"A Searching Four-Note Motif"
Cosmic Cycles Teaser Video (1½ min.)
“Throughout the work, Dehlinger effectively builds atop the foundation of a searching four-note motif that echoes other monolithic melodies we’ve come to connect with the cosmos, including the clarion dawn of Strauss’s "Also sprach Zarathustra" or John Williams’s five-note hello from the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."”
Genesis
Cosmic Cycles emerged from National Philharmonic conductor Piotr Gajewski’s long and successful partnership with NASA, which had previously created multimedia content to pair with space-themed concert programs that include Debussy's La Mer and Holst's The Planets.
For this collaboration, Gajewski turned the tables. Instead of asking NASA to provide content to pair with an existing work, he suggested that NASA create a fresh multimedia experience—a new non-narrative film that would inspire a new musical work about the Cosmos. This provided NASA’s production team the freedom to determine the visual story arc of each movement without the need to adhere to specific musical cues.
To compose the music, Gajewski turned to composer Henry Dehlinger, whose sweeping orchestral works he had premiered before with great success.
Cosmic Cycles premiered on May 11, 2023 at Capital One Hall in Northern Virginia. A sold-out performance followed on May 13, 2023 at the Music Center at Strathmore, the 2,000-seat concert hall in Maryland’s Capital Region known for its pitch-perfect acoustics.
“Dehlinger’s music does wonders,” said The Washington Post, which also singled out National Philharmonic, “commandingly conducted by Piotr Gajewski,” for special praise. Agence France-Presse called it “the ultimate blend of art and science.”
NASA StoryLab:
"Scoring the Cosmos"
Cosmic Cycles composer Henry Dehlinger discusses his unique collaboration with NASA Goddard and National Philharmonic with NASA's Wade Sisler. Topics include his creative process composing music for visual content created by NASA producers, taking the audience on an enchanting voyage through the cosmos, the power of art to communicate scientific ideas, and inspiring wonder and curiosity about the mysteries of the universe.
Logistics
Duration:
Approximately 110 minutes, inclusive of tuning, a 20-minute intermission between movements four and five, encore (Return to the Moon, A Fanfare to Artemis), and bows
Instrumentation:
3(pic).3(2corA).2.bcl.2.cbn - 6.4.2.btbn.cbtbn.1 - timp.3perc: BD- cyms- glsp- rainstick- shaker- 2SD- sus.cym- tam.tam- 2tamb- tpl.bl- thundersheet- tom.t- t.bells- whip- windmachine- vib- xyl- 2hp.pf(cel).syn - str (14-12-10-8-6 +)
Synthesizer:
The following synthesized sounds are installed on an Apple MacBook with Logic Pro or MainStage and played with a MIDI controller.
1) "Cathedral Organ" and 2) "Cinematic Choir," both VST plugins from Native Instruments, and 3) a data sonification sample of sound from the black hole at the center of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.
Double Bass:
C-extension required in Movements 1 and 6.
NASA Media Content
Film-with-orchestra performances are paired with the latest images from the Webb Space Telescope and 3D visualizations created by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Scientific Visualization Studio. These videos are projected in HD on a giant screen above the orchestra and provide a stunning visual canvas to Dehlinger's space symphony. To help keep music and videos synchronized, timecodes in minutes and seconds (e.g., 00:25, 1:15, 10:45) are displayed at various points throughout the score to help keep music and videos synchronized.
WORLD PREMIERE | |
May 11, 2023 Capital One Hall Tysons, VA |
National Philharmonic Piotr Gajewski, Conductor HD-multimedia by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center |


Gallery

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy delivers remarks prior to the world premiere. (Photo Credit: NASA/Wade Sisler)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Director Makenzie Lystrup delivers remarks prior to the second performance at the Strathmore. Photo credit: NASA/Wade Sisler