Moonshot

In the summer of 2022, the Schaumburg High School band (my alma mater) commissioned me to write a new piece for band.

During the writing process I was really attracted to the idea of writing a piece in two parts:

1. From Earth to the Moon – A movement all about the excitement and the adventure of space exploration. This was supposed to feel heroic and cinematic.
2. Prayer for Earth – This next section arrives with a bang and then all of a sudden all of gravity is gone. The listener is floating in space, looking back on our planet, a world that has accomplished so much but still has a lot of work to do.

The piece would be titled “Moonshot” because that’s what it was to get to space in the 1960’s, and that’s what it feels like it is for us back here on Earth.

As I wrote this piece, my former band director Greg Tipps, who now conducts the Harper College Wind Symphony asked if they could have the second performance. Mr. Tipps then told me about how one of his first students in the SHS band (a clarinet player), Catherine Koerner works for NASA. Not only does Catherine work at NASA, she’s the Deputy Associate Administrator, ESDMD, NASA HQ. She’s literally responsible for the program that is sending astronauts to the Moon and then Mars.

So I decided to take my own “moonshot” and I wrote her a letter and clicked send on LinkedIn. In my letter I told her that I was writing a piece about hope and (in my own hopes) acknowledging the importance of arts and all education. She loved the idea, she wrote a lovely program note, a letter to the students, and then offered to come out with me to meet the band.

In February it all came together and we met for the first time and got to hear Moonshot by the Schaumburg High School band for the first time all together; our former band director Greg Tipps, Catherine, and myself all in attendance.

Moonshot is a piece about hope. 👩‍🚀👨‍🚀🚀🌑🌌

Program Note by Catherine Koerner
Deputy Associate Administrator, ESDMD, NASA HQ

In a cosmic dance, the Earth and Moon pirouette through the solar system—uniquely bound to each other.  The Moon, barren of life, drives the cycle of life on Earth through the gentle pull of the tides – swaying, surging, and retreating as a couple, in a slow, romantic dance.  From Earth’s unique vantage point in the galaxy, we look with wonder at celestial bodies and observe the lights and sounds they send our way.  The variety and diversity of the heavens is unparalleled.  Like beautiful music, it stirs the soul.  It calls us to dream and explore.  It compels us to reach out and experience it ourselves.  Space exploration, by its very nature, is a dichotomy.  It is both glorious and dangerous, thrilling, and tranquil.  Exploration is complex and takes a team to accomplish, each with a unique role to play, coming together to achieve mission success.  Like each musician and instrument performing its part in a composition, the result, when played together, is something more glorious than one can achieve alone.

Over 50 years ago, the Apollo generation led the first forays to visit our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon.  In 2022, we completed the first Artemis mission in a campaign to explore the Moon. This series of missions will create a blueprint for exploration of the solar system.  As the Artemis generation, YOU are forging a future that will stir souls and spur imaginations to experience the music of the heavens, taking humanity farther than it has ever traveled into the cosmos.

Fly Me to the Moon – Suburb Talk