Salon Sanctuary Presents PERPETUAL MOTION: GALILEO AND HIS REVOLUTIONS Tonight

Salon Sanctuary will present "Perpetual Motion: Galileo and His Revolutions" tonight, February 7th at 8pm, featuring Galileo's Daughters, with guests lutenist Ronn McFarlane, author Dava Sobel, and video artist Marc Wagnon. The concert is set for The Renaissance Library of the House of the Redeemer, 7 East 95th Street, NY, NY 10128.

A moving and compelling account of a remarkable moment in the history of science, human thought and music, Perpetual Motion ties together groundbreaking repertoire of Galileo's day, narration by acclaimed best-selling science writer Dava Sobel, (author of Galileo's Daughter) and high-definition images of Earth and the cosmos.

Sobel narrates the story of coinciding revolutions in science and music in the 17th century, as breathtaking images of Earth and the heavens complement virtuoso singing and playing. Together they present a link to the past and bring to light the exquisite beauty of our world.

This exciting multimedia event will be presented in the Fabbri Mansion's reconstructed 15th century Library, brought to New York from Italy and reassembled here during World War I.

An ensemble based in New York City, Galileo's Daughters is inspired by the lives and works of Galileo Galilei, his daughter, Maria Celeste, and the musicians and scientists of their time. Their story is told in a multimedia program narrated by author Dava Sobel.

Since their debut concert in September 2001, Galileo's Daughters has performed throughout the United States at universities, music festivals and special gatherings of the scientific community.

Shaped by a variety of talents in early music, opera, jazz, drama, and scholarship among the four performers, the programs presented by Galileo's Daughters offer, through music, narration and a stunning video created by Marc Wagnon, an entertaining window into one of the most exciting periods in the history of western civilization.

FEATURING:

Sarah Pillow soprano
Mary Anne Ballard viola da gamba
Dava Sobel storyteller
Ronn McFarlane lute
Marc Wagnon video artist

Recently praised with having "a genuinely genre-busting voice, full and vivid" by Anne Midgette of The Washington Post, soprano Sarah Pillow enjoys a unique career, drawing on her equal expertise in jazz, classical, and early music repertoire. Beginning her career as a jazz singer, Sarah won best vocal solo in a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. She went on to study classical singing at Oberlin Conservatory, earning a Bachelor of Music degree. Since moving to New York City in the early 90s, Sarah has toured the United States and Canada with her jazz quartet, her crossover project, Nuove Musiche, and her early music ensemble, Galileo's Daughters. Sarah's current season includes performances in Washington D.C., California and New York City of music from the 12th century to recently composed works. Her new solo album, Grace in Time, is a collection of spiritual songs for organ and voice with organist Jeffrey C. Johnson. She is also featured on a new album titled Fairy Tales and Lullabies with The Phoenix Quartet. More information can be found at galileosdaughters.com and sarahpillow.com.

Mary Anne Ballard, viola da gamba, has, as a performer and programmer, explored a wide variety of early music from the Middle Ages through the Baroque periods. She has toured 47 states, The Netherlands, Germany, and Austria, and appearedon numerous radio programs (e.g. St. Paul Sunday, Performance Today) with The Baltimore Consort, an ensemble whose recordings of repertory from Renaissance England, Scotland, France, and Spain, as well as early traditional music have ranked in the top 10 on the Billboard "classical crossover" charts. She is also a member of the Oberlin Consort of Viols, Brio (Sephardic music), Galileo's Daughters, and Mr. Jefferson's Music. As a guest viol player, she has appeared with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, the Philadelphia Singers, and the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra.

Ms. Ballard has taught viola da gamba and directed early music ensembles at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the Peabody Conservatory, and she is currently on the faculty of the summer Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. In New York, she is Music Director for the recent production of the 12th-century Play of Daniel, with performances at The Cloisters and Trinity Wall Street Church.

Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter, is the author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, The Planets and A More Perfect Heaven, which also contains the play And The Sun Stood Still. In her thirty years as a science journalist she has written for many magazines, including Discover and The New Yorker, served as a contributing editor to Harvard Magazine and Omni, and co-authored five books, including Is Anyone Out There? with astronomer Frank Drake. Her most recent work, A More Perfect Heaven, about sixteenth-century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, was written as a two-act play inserted between non-fiction narrative. The play was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club through the Alfred P. Sloan Initiative, and supported by a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Ms. Sobel is a lifetime member of the International Dark Sky Association and a volunteer Solar System Ambassador for NASA. As a result of The Planets, asteroid "30935 Davasobel" was named in her honor.

GRAMMY-nominated lutenist, Ronn McFarlane strives to bring the lute - the most popular instrument of the Renaissance - into today's musical mainstream and make it accessible to a wider audience.

He has toured throughout the United States, Canada and Europe with the Baltimore Consort and as a soloist.

McFarlane was a faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory from 1984 to 1995, teaching lute and lute-related subjects. He has over 30 recordings on the Dorian/Sono Luminus label, including solo albums, lute duets, flute & lute duets, lute songs, recordings with the Baltimore Consort, the complete lute music of Vivaldi, and Blame Not My Lute, a collection of Elizabethan lute music and poetry, with spoken word by Robert Aubry Davis.

Recently, Ronn has been engaged in composing new music for the lute, building on the tradition of the lutenist/composers of past centuries. His original compositions are the focus of his solo CD, Indigo Road, which received a GRAMMY Award Nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2009. His CD release, One Morning, features "Ayreheart," a new ensemble brought together to perform Ronn's new music.