Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly & Sufjan Stevens' 'Planetarium' made its debut at BAM (pics)

March 22, 2013

“#Planetarium brought the house down. The future is officially made of lights, lasers and projectors.” – @BAM_Brooklyn

‘Planetarium’ at BAM, 3/21/2013

Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, and Sufjan Stevens‘ long-in-the-works collaboration, Planetarium, made its debut last night (3/21) at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House and was a symphony of light and sound. The first half featured individual works by each of them played by a sting quartet (frequent Dessner/Sufjan players Rob Moose, Nadia Sirota, Ben Russell, and Clarice Jensen) which inlcluded the debut of a new piece by Dessner, four of Sufjan’s “Year of” pieces, and Muhly’s “Diacritical Marks 1–8.”

After that, Planetarium commenced, with each song dedicated to a planet with projections to match on a huge orb above the stage. Plus, lots of laserrs. The evening ended with autotune/vocodered cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Planetarium continues tonight through Sunday (3/22 – 3/24) and Sunday is the only day there are still tickets available. You can’t buy online but you can call the box office at 718.636.4100.

Meanwhile, Dessner’s next BAM project is the 2013 Crossing Brooklyn Ferry festival in April.

More pics from last night’s ‘Planetarium’ debut are below.

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