PostClassical Ensemble presents 'The Pale Blue Dot: A Musical Voyage Inspired by Nature'

PostClassical Ensemble presents 
The Pale Blue Dot: A Musical Voyage Inspired by Nature
Multimedia concert on November 19, 2025 weaves an environmental narrative through sound and image

PostClassical Ensemble (PCE), one of the region’s most innovative music ensembles, launches its 2025-26 mainstage performance season with the presentation of The Pale Blue Dot: A Musical Voyage Inspired by Nature, with one performance on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 7:30pm at the Terrace Theater. Developed in collaboration with guest curators Enric Sala (National Geographic Explorer in Residence and Executive Director, Pristine Seas) and Kristin Rechberger (CEO, Dynamic Planet), the program will feature PCE conducted by Music Director Ángel Gil-Ordóñez, along with special guests, The Children’s Chorus of Washington. 

Tickets to The Pale Blue Dot are available online via The Kennedy Center website or by contacting the box office at 202-467-4600. Tickets are $45-$69 (not including fees), with discounts available for eligible patrons through the Kennedy Center’s Specially Priced Tickets (SPTs). 

The Pale Blue Dot traces a path from wild, pristine landscapes to a degraded natural world that looks and sounds ominous, culminating in a vision of ecological rebirth and celebration. As with most PCE programs, audiences can expect narration and commentary from the stage and visual projections integrated with the music. Several musical works – including beloved selections by Edvard Grieg, Léo Delibes, and excerpts from Howard Shore’s score to The Lord of the Rings – will be performed synchronously with high-definition video footage from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas project. 

Anchoring The Pale Blue Dot is a performance of Claude Debussy’s La mer, in the American premiere of an arrangement for chamber orchestra by British conductor and arranger Joolz Gale, who has gained critical acclaim in Europe for his reimagining of symphonic masterpieces for smaller configurations. PCE’s performance of La mer celebrates 120 years since its world premiere performance in 1905.

The concert also features selections from Virgil Thomson’s original scores for two landmark New Deal documentaries from the 1930s, created to raise public awareness of environmental degradation and the promise of federal reform. The Plow That Broke the Plains examines the conditions that led to the Dust Bowl, while The River explores the ecological and economic significance of the Mississippi River and the devastating consequences of its flooding. PCE will perform Thomson’s music, steeped in the soundscape of 1930s America and drawing from folk, jazz, and popular idioms, with the original films projected and a live narrator replacing the original voiceover. PCE previously released the world premiere recording of Thomson’s complete scores for these films in 2007 (Naxos American Classics).

The Pale Blue Dot concludes with an original musical mashup by local Washington, DC composer Joel Friedman—a joyful surprise that unites all performers and reflects the concert’s overarching theme.

Inspired by the beauty and generosity of the natural world, PCE will plant one tree for each ticket sold to this concert. This gesture is made possible through our partnership with ForestPlanet and its worldwide network of tree-planting partners. For more information, visit ForestPlanet.org.

More information online at: https://www.postclassical.com/shows/pale-blue-dot

PostClassical Ensemble’s Music Director
Ángel Gil-Ordóñez is Music Director of PostClassical Ensemble, Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble, and Music Director of the Georgetown University Orchestra. He also serves as lead advisor for Trinitate Philharmonia, a program in León, Mexico modeled on Venezuela’s El Sistema. He has appeared as guest conductor with the American Composers Orchestra, Opera Colorado, Pacific Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. An unwavering advocate for Spanish and Latin American repertoire, Gil-Ordóñez received the Royal Order of Queen Isabella, Spain’s highest civilian decoration, for his devotion to sharing Spanish culture with the world. He has recorded nine albums for the label Naxos, including PostClassical Ensemble’s Virgil Thomson, Copland, and Revueltas CD/DVDs.

Guest Collaborators
Enric Sala is a former university professor who saw himself writing the obituary of ocean life, and quit academia in 2008 to become a full-time conservationist as National Geographic Explorer in Residence. He founded and leads Pristine Seas, a global initiative that combines exploration, research, media, economics and policy – working with local communities, Indigenous Peoples and governments to protect vital places in the ocean. To date, Pristine Seas has helped to create 30 of the largest marine reserves on the planet, covering an area of over 6.9 million square km (the size of the Amazon region). Sala has published over 200 research papers, 3 books, produced 35 documentary films (including the acclaimed “Ocean with David Attenborough”), and received numerous awards, including 2008 World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader, 2013 Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Award, 2018 Heinz Award in Public Policy, 2021 Emmy Award for Nature Documentary, National Geographic Hubbard Medal, and Albert I Grand Medal. He is an Officer of the Order of San Carlos of Colombia and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Kristin Rechberger is CEO of Dynamic Planet, which helps advance markets that restore nature. Dynamic Planet’s portfolio includes expanding effectively managed marine and land protected areas and community conservancies that are developing conservation markets for sustainable financing; working with public and private sector partners on the forefront of nature-based solutions for climate; and building private and public funds with strong impact methodologies that are focused on growing natural capital. Formerly Senior Vice President of Global Programs and Partnerships at the National Geographic Society, Rechberger is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and serves on its Global Sustainable Tourism Council, as well as the boards of Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund, National Geographic Pristine Seas, Ocean Exploration Trust, Smithsonian Institution’s Earth Optimism, The Environmental Investigation Agency, The Environmental Film Festival, Mongabay, The Circulars Accelerator, and, at her home base in Washington, DC, Friends of Anacostia Park. Kristin has a policy degree from Duke University, was a 1995 Luce Scholar in Seoul, Korea and has completed executive programs at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Oxford.

Children’s Chorus of Washington (CCW) is a leading youth choral arts organization dedicated to nurturing artistic excellence and celebrating the power of every voice. Founded in 1995, CCW now serves over 300 young singers from across the Washington DC region through afterschool ensembles, school partnerships, and community programs. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Margaret Nomura Clark, CCW has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera, and has toured internationally. CCW’s 30th Anniversary Season highlights its mission to inspire, unite, and elevate young people through transformative choral experiences rooted in artistic excellence and shared humanity.

About PostClassical Ensemble
Under the leadership of Music Director Ángel Gil-Ordóñez, Washington’s PostClassical Ensemble (PCE) breathes new life into the orchestral experience through imaginative programming performed by the most talented musicians in the nation’s capital. Founded in 2003, PCE is a pioneer in transforming the concert experience through inclusive and original story-telling. Our performances include collaborations across artistic mediums that showcase how Film, Literature, and Art enhance and inspire a new way to experience the musical repertoire. For more, visit www.postclassical.com.

Performance Venue
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
2700 F St NW, Washington, DC 20566
Metro: Foggy Bottom/GWU (blue/orange/silver)
Parking: paid parking in Kennedy Center parking garage

Tickets and Information
What: PostClassical Ensemble’s The Pale Blue Dot: A Musical Voyage Inspired by Nature
When: Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: Terrace Theater, 2700 F St NW, Washington, DC 20566
Duration: Approximately 80-85 minutes, without intermission

Tickets: $45-$69 (not including fees), with discounts available. Purchase via phone at 202-467-4600 or online at kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/classical-music/2025-2026/pale-blue-dot-postclassical/ 

**This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.