Please click here to read The Life Project press release.
Please click here to add your email address to The Life Project mailing list. |
|
 |
|
- Press Release
- Events Calendar
- Press Reviews of LIFE Music
- June 15, 2008 – LIFE Music performed in Detroit
- November 3, 2007 – The European Premiere
- February 22–25, 2007 – The East Coast Premiere
- July 29 and 30, 2006 – The World Premiere
Press Release
Frans Lanting’s multimedia production ORIGINS with music by Philip Glass
to be performed October 21, 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland,
at the Inauguration Ceremony for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
SANTA CRUZ, CA, September 30, 2008. The Frans Lanting Studio announced today a new multimedia production, ORIGINS, which will be performed on October 21, 2008, at the official ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, to inaugurate the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful machine ever built to study the origins of the universe. ORIGINS will be presented as the entertainment centerpiece of the ceremony, which will be attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, King Juan Carlos of Spain, and more than 20 other European heads of state, as well as dozens of Nobel laureates and many international scientific and diplomatic delegations.
The Large Hadron Collider is the most massive particle accelerator in the world. Built by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the LHC represents a triumph of science and international cooperation, involving thousands of physicists from hundreds of universities and laboratories in more than 80 countries. When it begins operation, the LHC will simulate conditions that existed a fraction of a microsecond after the Big Bang, the primal explosion from which the universe originated. Experiments are expected to yield new information that will alter our understanding of the physical world, including the discovery of new forms of matter and new laws of physics.
Specially commissioned by CERN for the inauguration ceremony, ORIGINS features the imagery of Frans Lanting and the music of Philip Glass in a multimedia show that celebrates the wonders of the cosmos and the glory of life on Earth. Choreographed by visual designer Alexander V. Nichols, ORIGINS will be performed by Geneva’s Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, led by conductor Carolyn Kuan of the Seattle Symphony, with images projected dynamically on a cinema-width screen. The show is a 20-minute adaptation of the one-hour multimedia production LIFE: A Journey Through Time, featuring Frans Lanting’s photographs and Philip Glass’s music, and originally produced by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Music Director Marin Alsop. LIFE interprets the history of life on Earth in seven movements, from its earliest beginnings to its present diversity, in a production that merges the photographic arts, music, and science. The music for ORIGINS is comprised of the first and last movements from LIFE, paired with a visual score newly created for this event that includes images from CERN and from NASA’s Hubble Telescope, in addition to the photographs by Frans Lanting.
-
ORIGINS: The Artistic Team, www.LifeThroughTime.com/music.html
-
More About LIFE, www.LifeThroughTime.com/project.html
-
Partners and Sponsors of LIFE, www.LifeThroughTime.com/sponsors.html
-
Press Reviews of LIFE Music, www.LifeThroughTime.com/news.html
-
CERN and the LHC, www.cern.ch
-
Frans Lanting Studio, www.lanting.com/welcome.html
Back to Top
Events Calendar
| DATE |
PLACE |
VENUE |
EVENT |
|
|
Los Altos, CA |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
November 1–2, 2008
|
Friedrichshafen, Germany |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time"
and photo seminar
"Every Picture Tells a Story"
|
|
Leira, Portugal |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time"
and photo seminar
"Every Picture Tells a Story"
|
October 16, 2008
|
Cleveland, Ohio |
|
Keynote presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time"
|
|
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA |
|
Keynote presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
July 13, 2008
|
Napa, CA |
|
A multimedia orchestral performance
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
|
Seattle, WA |
|
Keynote presentation
"LIFE: The Unfolding Journey" |
June 15, 2008
|
Detroit, MI |
|
A multimedia orchestral performance
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
|
San Jose, CA |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: The Unfolding Journey" |
February 28, 2008
|
Santa Monica, CA |
|
Keynote presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time"
|
|
Vienna, VA |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time |
January 30, 2008
|
Las Vegas, NV |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time"
|
December 3, 2007 |
Getty Center,
Los Angeles |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
November 4, 2007 |
Genoa, Italy |
|
A lecture presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
November 3, 2007 |
Genoa, Italy |
|
A multimedia orchestral performance
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
November 2, 2007
|
Vargarda, Sweden |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time" |
October 26, 2007 |
London |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: The Unfolding Journey" |
October 22, 2007
|
Helsinki, Finland |
|
Keynote presentation
"LIFE: A Journey Through Time"
and photo seminar
"Every Picture Tells a Story"
|
October20, 2007
|
New York, NY |
|
Presentation
"LIFE: The Unfolding Journey" |
Back to Top
Press Reviews of LIFE Music
LIFE: A Journey Through Time was originally produced by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, in collaboration with Frans Lanting and his partner Christine Eckstrom, composer Philip Glass, arranger Michael Riesman, music director Marin Alsop, and choreographer Alexander V. Nichols. The world premiere of LIFE took place in Santa Cruz, California, in July 2006, with Maestra Marin Alsop conducting the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. Additional perfomances by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, were followed by the European premiere of LIFE in Genoa, Italy, in November 2007, with Carlo Boccadoro leading the Torino Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2008, Carolyn Kuan conducted perfomances of LIFE by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Napa Valley Symphony Orchestra. ORIGINS, a new adaptation of LIFE, will be performed on October 21, 2008, by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Carolyn Kuan, at the inauguration ceremony for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.
What the press is saying about the multimedia orchestral performance of Frans Lanting’s LIFE: A Journey Through Time:
June 15, 2008 – LIFE Music performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
LIFE Music was performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on June 15, 2008, as part of the annual avant-garde music festival “8 Days in June.” Carolyn Kuan conducted the orchestra to a full house at the Max M. Fisher Music Center.
What the Detroit Free Press had to say:
8 Days in June: Film, music and a gentle case for a greener future
By Mark Stryker • Free Press Music Critic • June 16, 2008
A multimedia valentine to environmentalism, Frans Lanting’s “Life: A Journey Through Time” is the kind of gentle polemic that folks from all over the political spectrum can get behind.
Lanting’s sly and sumptuous nature photographs, effectively transformed into moving images by visual designer Alexander Nichols and set to a score by Philip Glass, makes its case for protecting the planet by simply showing us image after image of beauty.
The most forceful pitch comes via an on-screen epilogue at the close: “Future life on earth will be shaped by your generation. We can all make a difference.” Surely even a Green party delegate and a lets-drill-for-oil-in-the-Arctic-tomorrow proponent could find common ground here.
Lanting’s film was the centerpiece of Day 2 of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s 8 Days in June festival at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Sunday. The afternoon was devoted to “The Changing Earth,” the film flanked by a Detroit Zoo curator lecturing on frogs and, believe it or not, a post-concert display of live bats. Other business kept me from the lecture and I scurried swiftly past the bats—they give me the willies and, besides, nothing in my job description says I have to get up close and personal with creepy flying mammals. (I know, bats are our friends, but still…)
But Lanting’s hour-long film, presented in Orchestra Hall with live accompaniment by the DSO, was a pleasurable feast for the eyes and the ears. Lanting’s dramatic images kept you entranced as they rolled across the three adjacent screens that fit snuggly together in a triptych. There were vistas of fiery volcanoes, African prairies, brittle ice fields and ocean expanses; wondrous flora; cleverly cropped close-ups of amazing critters large and small—soaring birds, mottled reptiles, psychedelically colored giant jelly fish, futuristic bugs, etc. The score was precisely timed to the visuals too, adding an occasional jolt of visual rhythm to match the patterns of the music.
Glass’ brand of minimalism—heavy with repeated arpeggios and simple major and minor tonalities—is at its most compelling in the context of a film score. The music for “Life,” arranged for orchestra by Michael Riesman, created hypnotic waves, flashes of gleaming color, swelling dynamics and pulsating rhythms that enlarged the meaning of Lanting’s imagery.
Anyone who hasn’t followed Glass’ development as a composer might have been surprised by how lush his music has become. Some of the melodies, including a yearning English horn passage and a plaintive trumpet cry, suggested neo-romantic expression. The DSO, conducted by Carolyn Kuan, sounded engaged if not especially inspired, and I left the hall wondering what I could do to live just a little bit greener than yesterday.
Back to Top
November 3, 2007 – The European Premiere of LIFE Music in Italy:
LIFE Music enjoyed its European premiere in Genoa, Italy, on November 3, 2007, with Carlo Boccodoro conducting the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra to a sold-out house at the Teatro Stabile in downtown Genoa.
What Science magazine had to say online:
Listening to Evolution
By John Bohannon
But the part of the festival that really blew me away was the concert. Of course, calling it a concert sells it short. In a program titled “Life,” the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Carlo Boccadoro, performed a piece of music by minimalist composer Philip Glass, while projected overhead were stunning images created by nature photographer Frans Lanting. This was no ordinary slide show. Design artist Alexander Nichols animated the photographs with a complex sequence of zooms, pans, and transitions in time with the music, literally bringing “Life” to life.
The goal was to tell the story of 3 billion years of evolution in about an hour, and it came off spectacularly. My favorite moment was when the percussion section first kicked in, corresponding to the outrageous innovation of body shapes about half a billion years ago known as the Cambrian explosion. Lanting may be best known for his shots of animals in action, but for my money, his photographs of cells, rocks, mud, and fossils were the real show-stealers. Then again, judging by the oh's and ah's of the audience, the evolutionary transition from sea to land—full of expressive amphibian faces peering uncertainly from the muck—may have been a bigger hit.
The performance was “science poetry,” says Marco Cattaneo, the editor of Le Scienze, the Italian version of Scientific American, based in Rome. “But it also made me sad to think of how fragile it all is. Will Lanting be able to find all those ecosystems and animals in 20 years?”
Cattaneo's somber comment illustrates one of the deeper purposes of an event like the Genoa Science Festival. The wonders of the natural world will be lost if people do not know what they're missing. Scientific exploration deserves a celebration—and in Genoa, they're doing so with great style.
To read more about the festival and the full review, please check:
sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1107/2
Back to Top
February 22, 23, 24, and 25, 2007 – The East Coast Premiere of LIFE Music in Washington, D. C., and Baltimore
What The Washington Post had to say:
“Lanting’s majestic photographs dance lightly across a huge screen over the orchestra, while some of Glass’s most elegant music pulses underneath. It’s a celebration of nature in all its glory.”
‘Life’ Proves That BSO Can Be a Real Glass Act
By Stephen Brookes • Special to The Washington Post • Saturday, February 24, 2007
Walking on a beach about seven years ago, Frans Lanting had an epiphany. The National Geographic photographer was shooting pictures of horseshoe crabs crawling out of the ocean, and suddenly realized that the creatures hadn’t changed in hundreds of millions of years; he was looking directly into the distant origins of life.
That moment set Lanting on an epic, six-year photographic journey around the world "with the simple idea," as he puts it, "of looking for the past in the present." The final result—which premiered last summer in California—was a spectacular, hour-long exploration of the evolution of life on earth, with some 200 of Lanting’s most vivid images set to a score by the minimalist composer Philip Glass.
The East Coast got its first look at "Life: A Journey Through Time" at the Music Center at Strathmore on Thursday night, when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presented it as part of the Explorer series. The project is a feast for both eyes and ears—Lanting’s majestic photographs dance lightly across a huge screen over the orchestra, while some of Glass’s most elegant music pulses underneath. It’s a celebration of nature in all its glory—from modest lichens to vast, erupting volcanoes.
Lanting is a gifted nature photographer, and his images (especially on this scale) are spellbinding—scorpions preparing to strike, hulking stromatolites stretching into a primal dawn, cheetahs charging across the African plain. And it’s worth the price of admission just to see a 40-foot jellyfish float lovingly over conductor Marin Alsop’s head.
It was also good to hear the music of Glass played by the BSO. Baltimore is Glass’s home town, yet he’s been shamefully ignored by the orchestra—though that may be about to change. Alsop, the incoming BSO music director, understands Glass’s music deeply (she once played in the Philip Glass Ensemble), and her handling of the score was beautifully detailed and evocative—a stunning performance sure to whet concertgoers’ appetites.
And it was an inspired choice to pick Glass for this project; his short, cellular motifs slowly replicate, transform and blend their musical DNA to form greater and more complex shapes—all with the implacable industriousness of evolution itself. The score (actually a pastiche of previous works, stitched together and orchestrated by Michael Riesman) kept "Life" moving forward smoothly, and sat fatly in the ears.
©2007 The Washington Post Company
Back to Top
July 29 and 30, 2006 – The World Premiere of LIFE Music in California:
What Alex Chadwick, host of National Public Radio’s Day to Day, had to say:
“LIFE…a multimedia presentation that’s a feast for both the eyes and ears.”
SANTA CRUZ, CA, July 31, 2006. The National Public Radio show Day to Day, hosted by Alex Chadwick, featured a segment on the world premiere of Frans Lanting’s Life: A Journey Through Time, in Santa Cruz on July 29. The broadcast is archived on the Day to Day home page on the NPR website. To read the press release, please click here.
A Lyrical, Multimedia ‘Journey Through Time’
By Alex Chadwick
Day to Day, July 31, 2006 • Renowned wildlife photographer Frans Lanting has unveiled a new project with an unexpected new partner—acclaimed American composer Philip Glass. Their collaboration is Life: A Journey Through Time, a multimedia presentation that’s a feast for both the eyes and ears.
The genesis of the project was sparked years ago while Lanting was taking pictures of horseshoe crabs—a life form that has remained basically unchanged over hundreds of millions of years. Lanting realized that the creatures offer a window into the past, and that there exist many other examples of how time tempers the shape of life on Earth, and how the Earth is in turn changed by the life it harbors.
Lanting spent seven years working on every continent—including Antarctica—and consulting with leading scientists in geology, paleontology and evolutionary biology. The result was a visual narrative of life assembled from nearly 200 images. The photo collection begins with an exploration of the basic elements of our world—earth, air, fire, water, space—and goes on to show how life has developed into an irresistible force that affects the entire world.
Glass first saw the images a couple of years ago and agreed to work with Marin Alsop, music director of the Cabrillo Music Festival in the California coastal town of Santa Cruz, to provide an hour-long musical score for Lanting’s images. The photos are projected onto an enormous screen that is suspended above the full orchestra.
LISTEN to Alex Chadwick’s NPR interview.
What the San Jose Mercury News had to say:
“A high-tech charmer…with ‘bravos’ ringing out before Alsop even lifted her baton.”
“‘Life: A Journey Through Time,’ is a multimedia creation story built around hundreds of images by the acclaimed nature photographer Frans Lanting, and digitally matched to the lushly pulsing music of Philip Glass. Saturday night at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, the hour-long work received its world premiere and it worked. A high-tech charmer, it offers up gentle shock and awe, taking a romantic view of nature and the evolution of life.
In the world of Lanting and Glass, the eyes of frogs look like jewels in a Tiffany display case; lagoons glow iridescently; and all the while, the music lifts and swirls, as we are proffered images of life moving out of the sea, onto land, into the air, and so on. Music director Marin Alsop led the festival orchestra through a supple performance of Glass' insistent, pinwheeling, seven-part suite as Lanting’s images (of Earth’s crust and mystic volcanoes, trilobites and birds in flight, jellyfish and tortoises, apes and people) danced, almost literally, to the music, dissolving and morphing across a giant projection screen, 48 feet long and 13 feet high, above the players. I found ‘Life’, which was commissioned by the festival, to be whimsical, fairly wondrous and lacking in pretension, happy to provoke pleasure.
Saturday’s sold-out performance was a real event, with ‘bravos’ ringing out before Alsop even lifted her baton.”
— Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News
What Yahoo! had to say:
“Lanting is the master of high-concept photography… LIFE takes high concept to a still higher plane.”
“Frans Lanting is one of the world’s foremost wildlife photographers, with a portfolio that stretches from Antarctica to Africa, diatoms to elephants. What distinguishes the Dutch-born photographer’s work is not just his technical excellence—it’s the idea behind the image, or more accurately the thinking behind a collection of images. He’s the master of high-concept photography: finding the word or phrase or unifying idea around which the images orbit, not just illustrating the idea but amplifying it, demonstrating it.
“Life: A Journey through Time” is Lanting’s latest project, and it takes high concept to a still higher plane. This time he’s joined forces with composer Philip Glass to create a multimedia concert experience that attempts to demonstrate the entire flow of life, from the big bang to the full flowering of life on Earth.”
— Christian Kallen, Yahoo!
Back to Top
|
