Message for the Action Man

Planet Musician Blog highlights Manchester Camerata’s hand in helping kids send a message to the skies

“I had a hard time getting up this morning – maybe I could get some help from English schoolkids. As part of Manchester Metropolitan University”s celebration of National Science and Engineering Week, students from three Manchester-area schools, St. Paul”s (Walkden), St. Barnabas (Clayton), and Wyche Primary (Nantwich), composed wake-up music for the residents of the International Space Station, with some help from the members of the Manchester Camerata: “The musicians… worked with the children composing new music for the wake-up calls based on astrophysical data, such as the radio waves emitted by celestial bodies, and visual images of space.” (They also had an Internet improv session with astrophysicist/rock musician Fiorella Terenzi.)

The three entries were judged by Russian rocket scientist Alexander Martynov and legendary cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, with the Camerata recording the winner for future early-morning duty (though this news report was coy as to who that winner actually was.) In the words of MMU Science Week organizer Conway Mothbi, “The call will be heard 250 miles above the earth by Expedition 14 cosmonauts under conditions of weightlessness. This is a great honour as it is a UK first.”

Read the blog – Click here