Perpetual Motion: Revolutions in 17th-Century
Science & Music

  

Author Dava Sobel eloquently narrates the story of coinciding revolutions in science and music in the 17th century, as breathtaking images of Earth and the heavens compliment the virtuoso singing and playing of soprano Sarah Pillow, her Baroque ensemble Galileo's Daughters, and lutenist Ronn McFarlane. 

Together they present a visceral link to the past and bring to light the exquisite beauty of our world- all in an exciting multimedia event. 

Watch a demo of Perpetual Motion:

- Perpetual Motion video exerpt from Part Five: Return to Nature: The Birth of Opera and Scientific Discoveryh
- Perpetual Motion video exerpt from Part Two: Power of the Gods: the Naming of the Planet

Guest artists in Perpetual Motion:

   
Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter, is the author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter and The Planets. In her thirty years as a science journalist she has written for many magazines, including Discover and The New Yorker, served as a contributing editor to Harvard Magazine and Omni, and co-authored five books, including Is Anyone Out There? with astronomer Frank Drake.
She received the 2001 Individual Public Service Award from the National Science Board, the 2001 Bradford Washburn Award from the Boston Museum of Science, and the 2004 Harrison Medal from the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, London. In 2008 the Astronomical Society of the Pacific gave her its Klumpke-Roberts Award for “increasing the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.”
She is a lifetime member of the International Dark Sky Association and a volunteer Solar System Ambassador for NASA.
Her current project is a stage play about sixteenth-century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, And the Sun Stood Still. The play was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club through the Alfred P. Sloan Initiative, and supported by a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Longitude, recently reissued in a special tenth-anniversary edition with a foreword by astronaut Neil Armstrong, won several literary prizes, including the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Galileo's Daughter is based on 124 surviving letters to Galileo from his eldest child, which Ms. Sobel translated from the original Italian. Galileo's Daughter won the 1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for science and technology, a 2000 Christopher Award, and was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in biography. The paperback edition enjoyed five consecutive weeks as the #1 New York Times nonfiction bestseller.  
As a result of her latest book, The Planets, asteroid “30935 Davasobel” was named in her honor.

 
One of the most outstanding lutenists performing today, Ronn McFarlane is working to bring the transcendent charm and timeless quality of the lute into the musical mainstream and make it accessible to a wider audience.
Born in West Virginia, Mr. McFarlane spent his early years in the neighboring state of Maryland. At thirteen, he fell hopelessly in love with music and taught himself to play on a "cranky sixteen-dollar steel-string guitar." Ronn evolved, teaching himself blues and rock music on the electric guitar while studying classical guitar. He graduated with honors from Shenandoah Conservatory and continued guitar studies at Peabody Conservatory before dropping out, turning his full attention and energy to the lute in 1978. The following year, Mr. McFarlane began to perform solo recitals on the lute and became a member of the Baltimore Consort. Since that time, he has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with the Baltimore Consort and as a soloist.
McFarlane was a faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory from 1984 to 1995, teaching lute and lute-related subjects. In 1996, Mr. McFarlane was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Shenandoah Conservatory for his achievements in bringing the lute and its music to the world. He has over 25 recordings on the Dorian label, including for solo lute recordings, lute song recordings, CDs with the Baltimore Consort and ballad recordings with Custer LaRue and members of the Baltimore Consort.
Recently, Ronn McFarlane has been engaged in composing new music for the lute, building on the tradition of the lutenist/composers of past centuries. This new music is the focus of his new solo CD, Indigo Road. Indigo Road was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Crossover Album for 2009.

Bookings: daughters@buckyballmusic.com or call 212-333-5812/1-800-823-0635

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