Frans Lanting’s LIFE: A Journey Through Time Premieres in New York

SANTA CRUZ, CA, May 6, 2009. The Frans Lanting Studio announced today a new multimedia production of LIFE: A Journey Through Time, which will be performed on June 10, 2009, at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, in a gala opening night celebration that will inaugurate New York’s World Science Festival and honor the distinguished biologist Dr. E. O. Wilson on the occasion of his 80th birthday. LIFE will be presented as an entertainment centerpiece of the evening’s festivities, which will feature a star-studded cast of some of the world’s most renowned scientists and performers, including Alan Alda, Glenn Close, Harrison Ford, and Nobel Laureates James Watson, Harold Varmus, and Sir Paul Nurse, as well as acclaimed neuroscientist Oliver Sacks.

Highlights of the gala evening program, which will weave together music, images, dance, film, and science, include the New York Premiere of a new version of LIFE: A Journey Through Time, a multimedia orchestral production featuring the imagery of Frans Lanting and the music of Philip Glass in a performance that celebrates the glory of life on Earth. Choreographed by visual designer Alexander V. Nichols, LIFE will be performed by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Maestra Marin Alsop, with images projected dynamically on a cinema-width screen. The show is a 30-minute adaptation of the original, one-hour multimedia production LIFE: A Journey Through Time, featuring Frans Lanting’s photographs and Philip Glass’s music, and first 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 this adaptation of LIFE is comprised of four movements from LIFE, paired with a visual score newly created for this event.

The World Science Festival features leading scientific minds as well as celebrated artists and thinkers in a cutting-edge program designed to bring science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City. Co-founded by Brian Greene, Columbia University physicist and bestselling author of The Elegant Universe, and Tracy Day, Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer, the Festival will take place from June 10-14, 2009, at dozens of venues in New York City.

1. About the LIFE Project, www.LifeThroughTime.com/project.html
2. Frans Lanting Studio, http://www.lanting.com
3. Tickets to LIFE in New York, http://www.lifethroughtime.com/LIFEMusic/WSFGalaNYC_LIFETickets.pdf
4. About the World Science Festival, http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/