Birth and Death of a Star is een muzikaal en educatief project dat op scholen en universiteiten het grote publiek vraagt om stil te staan bij het heelal en de plaats van de mensheid. Nelson componeerde muziek die is geïnspireerd op de levenscyclus van een ster. Voor zijn afstudeerproject trok hij de aandacht van astronaut en wetenschapper André Kuipers.

Nelson: ‘I wanted to combine music with astrophysics and education. I composed music inspired by the life cycle of a star, from its birth to its death. For this project, I received help from NASA (they send me audio fragments of actual recordings of star sounds), and from Dutch astronaut André Kuipers (we filmed some educational/inspirational videos of him where he describes the process of stellar evolution and our direct connection to it). My goal is to attract the general audience using music with a strong artistic concept, through the knowledge we got from astrophysics, share that we are all special, that we are all connected.’

'Ik wilde dat mijn muziek onze verhouding tot de sterren representeert. Hoe de elementen waaruit ons lichaam bestaat voortkomen uit sterrenstof. De elementen die vrijkwamen bij de explosie van sterren, zoals koolstof, calcium en ijzer, werden onderdeel van ons bloed, spieren en botten.'

'Nelson held a performance in the Artis Planetarium. He was recommended to us by astronaut André Kuipers, because he composed a musical suite based on astronomy and the origins of life. We agreed to have him and his band perform in our planetarium accompanying him with astronomical images and clips projected on our 628 m2 dome. The performance was enthusiastically received by the audience and led to people becoming more aware of the roots of their existence and the miracle that life is.'
Anthony van Bokhoven, Artis Planetarium

Student Nelson Ogliastri
OpleidingJazz
Titel eindwerk Birth and Death of a Star