Music for Galway presents The Pale Blue Dot by Elevation Ensemble, which reimagines the cultural time capsule of the Voyager Golden Record.

Description

Gina Maria McGuinness, violin | Karen Dervan, viola | Aoife Burke, cello | Daniel Bodwell, double bass

Programme:

"Per Aspera Ad Astra" by Linda Buckley (composed 2026, for strings and electronics)

"Cast Into the Endless Sea" by Jonathan Nangle (composed 2026, for strings and electronics)

Traditional music from Azerbaijan, Benin, Bulgaria, Japan, USA (as included on the Voyager Golden Record)

“To the makers of music — all worlds, all times…”

Those words were etched onto the Golden Records that were affixed to NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts, launched in 1977- humanity’s message to the cosmos, carrying music, sound and greetings from Earth into the vastness of interstellar space.

Nearly fifty years later, Elevation Ensemble reimagines that extraordinary cultural time capsule in a unique new multimedia performance. The Pale Blue Dot weaves new music by Irish composers Linda Buckley and Jonathan Nangle alongside explorations of some of the diverse non-Western musical traditions chosen for the Voyager Golden Record. The new and echoes of the old collide in a rich sonic landscape for violin, viola, cello, double bass and electronics- a contemporary response to humanity’s original “message in a bottle”.

The performance is accompanied by stunning visuals from video designer Manuela Corbari, while Brendan Owens, Astronomer Emeritus for the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, brings the story and science of the Voyager mission vividly to life.

Beautiful, searching and cosmic, The Pale Blue Dot invites audiences to reflect on our shared worlds, this fleeting moment in time, and the enduring human desire to reach beyond ourselves and be heard….. “our world, our time”.

Graciously funded by The Arts Council of Ireland

Attendees are invited to attend a follow-on Film Screening of 'The Farthest' at the Huston School of Film, from 2.30-4.30pm. For more details and to register your free place, visit: https://musicforgalway.ie/event/lunchtime-concert-the-pale-blue-dot/

Arts in Action is the flagship public arts, performance and creative engagement programme of the Institute for Creativity at the University of Galway.

Description supplied by the event organiser.