Dark Sky Quartet will be performing my piece “Watcher of the Sky,” composed for the sesquicentennial celebration of the birth of astro-physicist George Ellery Hale by the Mount Wilson Institute, on August 20.

Hale, born in 1868, founded Kenwood, Yerkes, Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar Observatories. He also built the largest telescope in the world four times – the 40-inch refractor at Yerkes, the 60-inch and 100-inch at Mount Wilson, and the 200-inch at Mount Palomar. Watcher of the Sky consists of four movements, each corresponding to a milestone in Hale’s career. Most of the musical material, both vertically and horizontally, is derived from the letters corresponding to musical pitch names found in the name George Ellery Hale, i.e., G, E, and A.

Excited to be on the program with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon!