Film is now a regular part of almost every major orchestra’s programming. World-class symphonies play soundtracks with films like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and Hitchcock oldies. It has broadened their audiences as was intended.
And yet.
Isn’t the role of music to expand our collective minds and imaginations?
To stretch and advance our understanding of what it means to be human?
Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth contains an ode to Mother Earth (Gaia in Greek) borrowed from a Greek hymn by Homer written 3,000 years ago. Sung by a choir in the original language, the verse asks us to honor the planet that takes care of us.
A symbolic Gaia, cast as a dancer, becomes the film’s protagonist and narrator. She dances the story of our past and present with a glimpse of a possible future. Unlike many environmental films, ours is infused with something others lack: Hope. It’s positivity audiences are longing for in these uncertain times. The film’s message, like the music, is both uplifting and emotionally charged.
Because of this crucial message, we are offering the film for free to your orchestra when they perform Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth.
Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth was written at the request of Marcel Mandos, artistic director of the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (NNO). It was premiered and recorded by the orchestra and the North Netherlands Concert Choir conducted by Otto Tausk at Rotterdam’s De Doelen concert hall, March 2, 2006. (CD: Amstel Classics 2006-01).
A winner of the International Composition Competition, Corciano (Italy), it has been performed hundreds of times by orchestras across five continents.
The audiences grew for Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth. Meanwhile, we felt compelled to create a film for the music to attract new classical music audiences and amplify the symphony’s planet- protecting message.
“A brilliant composer and orchestrator, Johan De Meij’s tour-de-force symphony Planet Earth has been visually realized by Dyan Machan’s stunning new film CineSymphony-Planet Earth, directed and edited by Jed Parker. Seen through the primordial eyes of the Greek goddess Gaia, ancestral mother of all life, this film is an impassioned sonic and visual experience not to be missed.”
“De Meij’s Planet Earth Symphony is music for our times. The film gives the gorgeous orchestral score a completely new dimension. It shows the beauty of our planet, it is a wake-up call and it ends in hope. The interaction between music and film make Planet Earth into an intense and unforgettable experience.”
— WHO WE ARE —
Johan de Meij, Composer and Conductor
De Meij’s award-winning oeuvre of original compositions, symphonic transcriptions, and film score arrangements have garnered him international acclaim and become permanent fixtures in the repertoire of renowned ensembles throughout the world.
His Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings was awarded the prestigious Sudler Composition Prize and has been recorded by numerous orchestras including The London Symphony Orchestra, The North Netherlands Orchestra, The Nagoya Philharmonic and The Amsterdam Wind Orchestra.
His Symphony No. 2 The Big Apple, Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth, Symphony No. 4 Sinfonie der Lieder and his solo concerti, T-Bone Concerto (trombone), UFO Concerto (euphonium), and Casanova (cello) have been enthusiastically received at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, Osaka Symphony Hall and other venues.
De Meij is in high demand as a guest conductor and lecturer, and is frequently invited to speak about and perform his own works. He currently maintains posts with both the New York Wind Symphony and the Kyushu Wind Orchestra in Fukuoka, Japan as their principal guest conductor.
Jed Parker, Director and Editor
Parker has been working at the intersection of art, film, and music for more than 30 years. After studying film and painting at New York’s Pratt Institute, Parker went on to edit numerous award-winning PBS documentaries about artists. They included American Masters’ “Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart,” and “Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens,” as well as the full-length films, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, and Who Gets to Call It Art? that Film Threat magazine called “one of the greatest art documentaries ever made.” Parker was born in New York but is based outside of Rome, Italy.
Dyan Machan, Executive Producer
Machan is an award-winning writer and newly-minted filmmaker with a long career in business and travel journalism. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Departures magazine. She has also held senior editorial positions at Barron’s, Smart Money, Forbes and Financial World. In 2012, Machan won a National Headliner Award from The Press Club and a Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She was also awarded Business Journalist of the Year from the Global Awards for Business Journalism.