Planetarium

With the US premiere of Planetarium, three of today's most multifaceted music talents--The National's Bryce Dessner (The Long Count, 2009 Next Wave; Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, 2012 Winter/Spring Season), composer Nico Muhly, and singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens (The BQE, 2007 Next Wave)-- come together to consider the cosmos. For the first half of the evening, a string quartet performs each artist's classically informed compositions. In the latter half, Stevens' voice anchors a planet-by-planet song cycle that melds the collaborators' distinct creative contributions--"the National's honeyed scree, Muhly's disjointed pomp and Stevens' electronics and modernist folk tendencies" (The Guardian)--into 10 a harmonic whole. The cycle unfolds against the backdrop of a giant orb that morphs to reflect the characteristics of the sphere being celebrated.