Symphony for the History of Time
Credit: X-ray: NASA/SAO/CXC; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major
Premiering 7 May 2026, St John's Cathedral, Brisbane
Presented by UQ Arts, the University of Queensland, featuring The University of Queensland Symphony Orchestra, The UQ Chorale and the UQ Chamber Singers.
Symphony for the History of Time is a programmatic symphony telling the story of our universe as we currently understand it based upon the cosmology research of Professor Tamara Davis and her research collaborations with The Dark Energy Survey (DES) and The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI).
Audiences will be surrouned by 172 musicians in motion in a darkened St John's Cathedral lit by wonderous projections of the distant reaches of our universe. Starting before the Big Bang with current scientific theories of how our universe may have come into being, then progressing through the Big Bang, to the formation of galaxies and stars, Symphony for the History of Time is a musical translation of this science, using the symphony orchestra as a palette to understand the infinite complexities of the history of our universe, and our fragile human perception within it.
Duration: 54 Minutes.