- Our next spotlight features BELLA GAIA,
an unprecedented audio visual experience
that fuses NASA satellite imagery of Earth
into a live performance.
Please welcome Kenji Williams
and the Bentonville High
School Chamber Choir.
(audience applauding)
- Good afternoon, my
name is Kenji Williams.
I am the director and
founder of BELLA GAIA,
which means Beautiful Earth.
And as this amazing choir
will take position on stage,
I'm going to,
(audience applauding)
the Bentonville High School Choir.
(audience applauding)
BELLA GAIA came about, BELLA GAIA means Beautiful Earth,
and it came about from a meeting I had
with NASA astronaut Mike Fincke,
who lived on the space
station for over a year,
and when I met him, I asked him,
what is it that changed
when you went to space?
And he replied and told me his story
of how he looked out the
window and saw our Earth,
this living blue bubble of life
floating in the blackness of space,
our atmosphere just 20 miles thick,
and he came back to Earth
with a much greater
appreciation for our planet.
He really had a transformation,
what some people call the overview effect,
and I was so inspired by Mike's story
it got me thinking, how could I bring
this transformative experience
to those of us who cannot yet go to space?
And what resulted, and what
you'll see a sample of today
is a multimedia show.
I began, it may look
like I will play violin
but it's very little of what I do.
I began piecing together clips,
rendered material, animations,
and also curated content from NASA,
these amazing data visualizations
of scientific information,
and putting music to it,
and eventually live musicians and dancers
for our full 80 minute show.
But the result was an
incredible survey results
from our NASA-funded education program.
90% of audiences having a
transformative experience,
saying that they have a greater
understanding of our Earth
after one show, a more than doubling
from 31% to 64% of people saying
that the feel like the
Earth has a greater role
in their personal life and their family.
And I have personally had
experiences of converting
climate skeptics in one show.
So there's certainly something about
the live, direct experience,
and tapping into our
emotional intelligence
that I really enjoyed being
a part of this project.
Now, with this amazing choir,
this is our forthcoming CD
to be released in November.
And I was mixing this,
I was like, I would love to
have a choir on my last track.
At the same time, I
was in touch with Terry
and the organizers of this event,
and I asked Terry if he would be
willing to involve his
choir in the recording,
and so we recorded remotely
the Bentonville High School Choir
and I integrated it into the last track,
which by the way, this
CD was supposed to go
in all of your bags, but
FedEx did not arrive on time,
but it will be for free outside
on the counter there as you walk out.
Free for everybody.
Today is our first live
collaboration with the choir.
And this is really a
dream come true for me.
Creativity happening
in front of your eyes for the first time.
I wanna thank all of you
and I hope you enjoy the journey.
I dream of growing this project further
and I do hope to talk with
many of you and collaborating.
So, thank you so much.
(audience applauding)
(ethereal music)
(uplifting violin music)
- [Astronaut Speaking Over
Radio] The view of the Earth
is a beautiful, beautiful view
with a predominantly blue background
and very, very beautiful.
(upbeat violin music)
- [Sandra] We are a water planet.
Islands and coral reefs in the deep ocean
are like pearls.
(upbeat violin music)
(choir singing)
♪ Help me ♪
♪ Help me ♪
♪ Help me ♪
♪ Help me ♪
♪ Help me ♪
♪ Help me spread your fragrance ♪
♪ Wherever I go ♪
♪ Flood my soul ♪
♪ Flood my soul ♪
♪ Flood my soul ♪
♪ My soul ♪
♪ Flood my soul ♪
♪ With your spirit ♪
♪ And life ♪
♪ Penetrate and possess ♪
♪ My whole being ♪
♪ So utterly ♪
♪ That my life ♪
♪ May be only ♪
♪ A radiance of yours ♪
♪ Shine through me ♪
♪ And be so in me ♪
♪ That every soul I know ♪
♪ Will hear your prayers ♪
♪ See my soul ♪
♪ Let them look up ♪
♪ Look up ♪
♪ Look up and see ♪
♪ Let them look up and see ♪
♪ And see ♪
♪ And see no ♪
♪ longer me ♪
♪ But only you ♪
♪ But only you ♪
♪ Amen ♪
(airplane taking off)
(somber violin music)
- [Mae] Being in space provided me
with a perspective that
allowed me to see the world
as a whole, and to see the impact
that we as humans have had
on it, both good and bad.
(upbeat violin music)
- [John] Throughout history,
many species became extinct but humans
are the first species to have
a choice in our extinction.
(upbeat violin music)
(airplane taking off)
(somber violin music)
- [Bin Salman] The first day or so,
we all pointed to our countries.
The third or fourth day, we
were pointing to our continent.
By the fifth day, we were
aware of only one Earth.
(somber violin music)
(whales singing)
(choir humming and
upbeat electronic music)
(audience applauding)
