For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (85) - Astral Concert

Text by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe, design by Valentin Grigore

Published: Friday, May 08 2020 22:22

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Pianist Giovanni Renzo’s Cosmic Concert series for Global Astronomy Month, a traditional annual official program of the largest world celebration of astronomy since 2010, inspired three similar major cosmic (astral) concerts in Romania. 

The first of them was initiated and organized by Valentin Grigore (president of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM and national coordinator for Astronomers Without Borders in Romania) for GAM 2011 and took place in April 11, 2011, at the Youth House in Targoviste: the Muntenia Philharmonic Orchestra performed several pieces of classical music, while Valentin Grigore and his SARM team projected astrophotography by him, other Romanian astrophotographers and more famous astronomical observatories on the background; during the breaks and after the concert, the spectators were invited to watch the heavenly bodies by telescope. 

An image from the event (from the SARM collection) with Valentin Grigore and the Muntenia Philharmonic Orchestra is below (after my knowledge, it was the second major cosmic concert in GAM history). 

In April 1, 2012, Marian Lucian Achim (president) and his “Youth for Future” Romanian Society for Science and Culture (SRCSTV) initiated and organized for GAM 2012, in partnership with a few local institutions (Mayoralty, County Council, County Museum, University etc,) the second cosmic (astral) concert in Romania at the Elvira Godeanu Municipal Theatre in Targu Jiu: the Oltenia Philharmonic Orchestra performed a classical concert (“The Music of the Spheres”) during an event that included astronomical speeches and exhibitions of Romanian astrophotography and astroart, meteorites and astronomical instruments.

The poster of the event is below.

Eight years later, SARM (in partnership with the Admiral Vasile Urseanu Bucharest Municipal Observatory, the Mihail Sebastian Cultural Circle and the Friends of Operetta) planed a cosmopoetry + cosmic (astral) concert at the Bucharest Municipal Observatory for GAM 2020 (April 10), but the event was annulated because of the world sanitary crisis.

In this conditions, Mihai Hristu (leader of “Clubul Tanarului Orfeu” / Young Orpheus’ Club, producer) and Liana Tauberg (leader of “Amicii Operetei” / Friends of Operetta, coordinator and presenter of classical music moments) had the ambitious initiative to organize the third astral concert in Romania, this time an on-line one (producer: Club Orfeu Live, presented in Romanian), dedicated also to GAM 2020, for which several elite Romanian musicians brightly performed international pieces of classical music on cosmic themes (such as “O Sole Mio” and “Wish Upon A Star”, which were adorned by a few sequences of astronomical films): pianist Alexandru Burcă, soprano Daniela Ciociea, baritone Odin Ciociea, bass Florin Ganea, tenor Răzvan Săraru, pianist Tudor Scripcariu, tenor Alin Stoica and soprano Diana Tudor.

But the result of this difficult action could be transmitted to the public at large only during the evening of May 1, 2020, so finally it served as an event of closing of GAM 2020 in Romania (and replaced the traditional star party organized in the past by SARM at the same date in Targoviste central square as GAM closing ceremony in Romania).

To raise the level of the event and to obtain astronomical legitimacy, Mihai and Liana contacted two personalities in Romanian astronomy, who showed much admiration and respect for the performance of the excellent artists and accepted to become real partners of the Astral Concert:

1. Dragos Brasov (president of the Urania Astronomical Association and director of the Supernova Planetarium), who gave two generous speeches about astronomy in the beginning and at the end of the concert.

2. Valentin Grigore (just the initiator of the first astral concert in Romania for GAM in 2011), who (during his intervention at the middle of the concert) multiplied the complexity of the event and brought a chapter of originality.

Thus, Valentin Grigore:

-created and superposed his own mini-concept (in the consecrated style of SARM) to connect this concert of classical cosmic contemplation to modern astronomy;

-included the Romanian version of the trailer of Global Astronomy Month 2020 (produced even by himself) in the concert;

-clarified a few confuse aspects of the initial concept;

-included moments of Romanian original astropoetry, education through astronomy, his own original astrophotography and Dan Stesco’s electronic music (from “Polymoog Gentry”, a reference album from 1976) in his presentation;

-expanded considerably the audience of the Astral Concert…

…and one after another, he gave an unforgettable moment of astronomy and cosmopoetry.

The same Valentin Grigore also helped me to choose a few sequences from the on-line Astral Concert (including only protagonists in cosmic environment): Dragos Brasov, Liana Tauberg (with her father’s astropoetry book, “Simfonia Astrala” / Astral Symphony by Zigmund Tauberg), Tudor Scripcariu, Valentin Grigore, Daniela and Odin Ciociea.

Certainly, the on-line Astral Concert in Romania was a special moment of Global Astronomy Month 2020, and we will dedicate four other episodes to Valentin Grigore’s presentation…