Celestial Bodies, Earthly Connections: Experiencing The Planets and Diaspora
NASA, ESA, and M. Wong (University of California – Berkeley); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
When Adam and I began developing Ode in July 2024, the Seattle Symphony was one of the first organizations I entered into our database. The symphony presents over 100 events per season, and as I manually entered each one, finding a rhythm for large-scale data entry, I came across Holst The Planets: An HD Odyssey. This event stood out to me for multiple reasons: I had never attended a symphonic performance that incorporated projected imagery, and it featured a saxophone solo.
My mother is a musician. She plays many instruments, but the saxophone is her primary one. She has played since early childhood, toured Europe in the ’90s with a jazz band, and spent years teaching others the joy of the instrument. My upbringing was filled with talk of saxophones, saxophone music, and my mother’s deep love for the instrument—a love that has shaped my own appreciation for it.
As we continued working on Ode, this event stayed in the back of my mind. For my mother’s birthday last September, we purchased three tickets to the Saturday night performance. Fast forward six months—Ode has since launched and exceeded our expectations in ways we couldn’t have imagined, and the much-anticipated event had finally arrived.
In September 2024, Xian Zhang was announced as the next Music Director of the Seattle Symphony. A longtime collaborator with the symphony since her debut in 2008, Zhang’s five-year contract officially begins in the 2025/26 season. Holst The Planets: An HD Odyssey marked her first time conducting the Seattle Symphony since accepting the position, as the 2024/25 season draws to a close. Notably, Zhang was the first woman to serve as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony and is now the first to lead a major West Coast orchestra. Her commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts is evident in her programming, often featuring works by women and composers of color. In a time when diversity initiatives and historic recognitions face erasure, continued representation of women and people of color in music is more important than ever.
The evening’s program opened with Diaspora, a concerto for saxophone and orchestra by Billy Childs. Premiering in 2023 with the Kansas City Symphony, Diaspora is one of the few orchestral works that highlights the saxophone as a solo instrument. Childs composed the piece in collaboration with saxophonist Steven Banks, who performed with the Seattle Symphony that night. Lauded as a virtuoso, Banks strode onto the stage carrying both an alto and soprano saxophone, greeting the principal violinist with a warm handshake. The performance was breathtaking.
Childs describes Diaspora as “a symphonic poem which strives to chronicle the paradigm of the forced black American diaspora, as sifted through the prism of my own experience as a black man in America.” As Banks played, I noticed my mother rubbing her arthritic thumb knuckle—a lasting mark of decades spent supporting the weight of her saxophone.
The third movement, And Still I Rise, evokes Black empowerment and the role of the church in the community. Its tonality shifts to recall the familiar sounds of a Sunday church service. At the beginning of the movement, Banks walked to the back of the stage, and his new position altered the resonance of the notes, allowing them to echo across the concert hall in a way that felt expansive. The movement concluded with Banks sustaining a high note on the soprano saxophone. As the final note rang out, I saw my mother discreetly wiping tears from her eyes. The piece embodies the hope, resilience, love, and determination of Black Americans. When the applause erupted, Billy Childs himself stepped onto the stage to share in the moment.
The Planets, composed by Gustav Holst between 1914 and 1917, premiered in 1918 and was first performed by the Seattle Symphony in 1988. Each movement of this seven-part orchestral suite represents a different planet and its corresponding astrological characteristics. Although many believe The Planets was inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, Holst maintained that astrology was his true source of inspiration. The Planets has since left its mark on Hollywood film scores, particularly in the works of John Williams—from Jurassic Park to, fittingly, Star Wars.
That night, the performance was accompanied by NASA imagery—panning shots of planets and rover footage—which deepened the music’s impact. The landscapes were at once alien and oddly familiar, mirroring aspects of our own world. While the visuals enhanced the experience, I found myself equally captivated by Zhang’s conducting and the musicians themselves. Their upright postures conveyed an illusion of stillness, but upon closer inspection, their hands and bows moved with breathtaking speed and precision.
Attending a performance of this scale reaffirms why Ode’s mission is so vital—to make the arts more accessible and ensure that all voices are heard on the concert stage. While I grew up surrounded by music, immersed in the sounds of my mother’s saxophone, I know that not everyone has had that experience. Sitting beside her in the audience, I was reminded of the power of representation. She turned to me and said "Seeing this makes me think that I could have been up there." Though her journey took a different path, the music still resonated deeply, bridging past aspirations with present appreciation. Whether in grand concert halls filled with lifelong patrons or intimate venues welcoming first-time listeners, these performances have the power to unite us, challenge us, and inspire us. Music belongs to everyone, and its stage should reflect the diversity of those it moves.
My mother is a musician. She plays many instruments, but the saxophone is her primary one. She has played since early childhood, toured Europe in the ’90s with a jazz band, and spent years teaching others the joy of the instrument. My upbringing was filled with talk of saxophones, saxophone music, and my mother’s deep love for the instrument—a love that has shaped my own appreciation for it.
As we continued working on Ode, this event stayed in the back of my mind. For my mother’s birthday last September, we purchased three tickets to the Saturday night performance. Fast forward six months—Ode has since launched and exceeded our expectations in ways we couldn’t have imagined, and the much-anticipated event had finally arrived.
In September 2024, Xian Zhang was announced as the next Music Director of the Seattle Symphony. A longtime collaborator with the symphony since her debut in 2008, Zhang’s five-year contract officially begins in the 2025/26 season. Holst The Planets: An HD Odyssey marked her first time conducting the Seattle Symphony since accepting the position, as the 2024/25 season draws to a close. Notably, Zhang was the first woman to serve as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony and is now the first to lead a major West Coast orchestra. Her commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts is evident in her programming, often featuring works by women and composers of color. In a time when diversity initiatives and historic recognitions face erasure, continued representation of women and people of color in music is more important than ever.
The evening’s program opened with Diaspora, a concerto for saxophone and orchestra by Billy Childs. Premiering in 2023 with the Kansas City Symphony, Diaspora is one of the few orchestral works that highlights the saxophone as a solo instrument. Childs composed the piece in collaboration with saxophonist Steven Banks, who performed with the Seattle Symphony that night. Lauded as a virtuoso, Banks strode onto the stage carrying both an alto and soprano saxophone, greeting the principal violinist with a warm handshake. The performance was breathtaking.
Childs describes Diaspora as “a symphonic poem which strives to chronicle the paradigm of the forced black American diaspora, as sifted through the prism of my own experience as a black man in America.” As Banks played, I noticed my mother rubbing her arthritic thumb knuckle—a lasting mark of decades spent supporting the weight of her saxophone.
The third movement, And Still I Rise, evokes Black empowerment and the role of the church in the community. Its tonality shifts to recall the familiar sounds of a Sunday church service. At the beginning of the movement, Banks walked to the back of the stage, and his new position altered the resonance of the notes, allowing them to echo across the concert hall in a way that felt expansive. The movement concluded with Banks sustaining a high note on the soprano saxophone. As the final note rang out, I saw my mother discreetly wiping tears from her eyes. The piece embodies the hope, resilience, love, and determination of Black Americans. When the applause erupted, Billy Childs himself stepped onto the stage to share in the moment.
The Planets, composed by Gustav Holst between 1914 and 1917, premiered in 1918 and was first performed by the Seattle Symphony in 1988. Each movement of this seven-part orchestral suite represents a different planet and its corresponding astrological characteristics. Although many believe The Planets was inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, Holst maintained that astrology was his true source of inspiration. The Planets has since left its mark on Hollywood film scores, particularly in the works of John Williams—from Jurassic Park to, fittingly, Star Wars.
That night, the performance was accompanied by NASA imagery—panning shots of planets and rover footage—which deepened the music’s impact. The landscapes were at once alien and oddly familiar, mirroring aspects of our own world. While the visuals enhanced the experience, I found myself equally captivated by Zhang’s conducting and the musicians themselves. Their upright postures conveyed an illusion of stillness, but upon closer inspection, their hands and bows moved with breathtaking speed and precision.
Attending a performance of this scale reaffirms why Ode’s mission is so vital—to make the arts more accessible and ensure that all voices are heard on the concert stage. While I grew up surrounded by music, immersed in the sounds of my mother’s saxophone, I know that not everyone has had that experience. Sitting beside her in the audience, I was reminded of the power of representation. She turned to me and said "Seeing this makes me think that I could have been up there." Though her journey took a different path, the music still resonated deeply, bridging past aspirations with present appreciation. Whether in grand concert halls filled with lifelong patrons or intimate venues welcoming first-time listeners, these performances have the power to unite us, challenge us, and inspire us. Music belongs to everyone, and its stage should reflect the diversity of those it moves.
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