The stars align in A Symphony of Stars, a compelling new feature spotlighting an interview with conductor Dr. Steven Hillinger of the North Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Steven offers a fascinating insight into Cosmic Cycles—composer Henry Dehlinger's groundbreaking suite that recently made its Australia premiere.

Blending music, science, and visual wonder, Cosmic Cycles is an ambitious multimedia symphony that fuses Dehlinger's cinematic score with breathtaking imagery from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The symphony, commissioned by the National Philharmonic and premiered in 2023 under the baton of Maestro Piotr Gajewski, captures the grandeur of the cosmos in seven dynamic movements, each inspired by a different aspect of the universe—from black holes and solar storms to exoplanets and deep space exploration.

In A Symphony of Stars, Dr. Hillinger—physicist, musicologist, and lifelong advocate for science communication—dives into the symphony’s narrative power, its scientific inspirations, and the artistic collaboration that made it possible. He discusses the vital role music plays in interpreting the cosmos, and how Cosmic Cycles bridges the gap between art and astronomy.

“Although I have seen concerts where images of space have been projected onto a screen to accompany the music, as far as I’m aware, this is the first time that music has been composed to accompany images from space.” says Dr. Hillinger. “In this work, Dehlinger writes in a style that, although using contemporary composition techniques is, at the same time, very accessible to the listener.”