Watch the premiere recording of Moonshot for string quartet by composer Alistair Coleman, written for and performed in this film by the Abeo Quartet.

The piece is inspired by a triptych of paintings by artist On Kawara depicting the three milestones of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Painting I: 16 July 1969 ‘Launch’; II: 20 July 1969 ‘Lunar landing’; and III. 21 July 1969 ‘The day people on Earth came together to celebrate humanity’s first steps on the Moon’. 

Moonshot was commissioned by and premiered at the Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland, where the triptych is on display. The film was made at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, inside the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar where the Discovery Space Shuttle is on permanent display. The video was produced for the Smithsonian Year of Music 2019 and released during the museum’s year-long celebration of Apollo at 50. The premiere concert will be broadcast on WETA 90.9FM (Washington, DC’s classical music station) on Monday 27 January at 9pm.

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