Astronaut-Violinist Sarah Gillis Performs from Space with Music Students on Earth
American space operations engineer Sarah Gillis, age 30, became the first human to play the violin in space on Friday, when she performed John Williams' "Rey’s Theme" (from Star Wars: The Force Awakens) while in orbit aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the private crewed Polaris Dawn spaceflight by SpaceX.
Gillis was joined on the ground by young musicians from around the world, all of them students in the international El Sistema network of organizations, including the original El Sistema in Venezuela, The Boston String Academy in the United States, NEOJIBA in Brazil, Dream Orchestra in Sweden, Brass for Africa in Uganda, and BLUME Haiti. The video of their historic performance is the first-of-its-kind downloaded from space via Starlink high-speed internet.
Gillis's performance raised money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and El Sistema.
"Music has been a defining force in my life, thanks to the unwavering support of both my parents," Gillis told El Sistema. “My mother, a music teacher, championed my classical training on the violin, which has helped shape me into the engineer and astronaut I am today. The discipline, work ethic, and creativity fostered through music set me on the path that led to this extraordinary adventure into space. I’ve chosen to support El Sistema USA because they believe every child deserves access to the transformative power of music education, regardless of circumstance."
A native of Palo Alto, Calif., Gillis grew up surrounded by music, starting the violin at a young age with her mother, Sue Levine, who is a violinist and Suzuki teacher. While in high school at Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, Colo., she went to a lecture where she meet her mentor, former NASA astronaut Joe Tanner, who encouraged her to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering.
In 2015, while studying engineering and dance at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Sarah started an internship at SpaceX, working on human-in-the-loop testing of the Dragon spacecraft interior before moving into the astronaut training program full-time.
"I feel that one of the skills from music is the ability to break down any problem and practice very small pieces of it until you can built a whole, and that feels so applicable to space flight," Gillis said in an interview with the Polaris Dawn Crew. "You are learning, with repetition, how to break down the things you can't accomplish, and then see them through, with practice, and get to the other side."
On Thursday Gillis was one of two Polaris Dawn astronauts to perform a historic spacewalk, the world's first commercial extravehicular activity, or EVA. During the one-hour and 46-minute spacewalk, Gillis and Polaris Dawn mission commander and financier Jared Isaacman tested SpaceX's new EVA suits, which the company says will help enable future missions both in orbit around Earth and farther out into space, potentially on the moon or Mars.
In introducing the music video, called "Harmony of Resilience," Gillis said that "as we travel around our beautiful planet Earth on this five-day mission, we wanted to share this special musical moment with you. Bringing together global talent, this performance symbolizes unity and hope, highlighting the resilience and potential of children everywhere."
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Replies
Exiting? I hope not! I hope she's coming back!
Exciting indeed! Looks and sounds like the audio - at least her portion of it - was recorded before the flight, but then synchronized rather decently with the video that may have been truly filmed in space, and the whole thing was then edited quite nicely. In any case, a worthy project well done.
I would be curious about the process of recording this! Also, how does spiccato feel in space? One of my teachers (Harold Wippler) often demonstrated that a bouncing bow has nothing to do with gravity by leaning over and playing spiccato upside down! But this would demonstrate that in a much more dramatic fashion?l!
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September 15, 2024 at 02:03 PM · This is beautiful and fun and exiting.