I've attended my fair share of live music performances, held everywhere from Radio City Music Hall to college dorms. The first concert I saw was the Jonas Brothers in Central Park in New York City (which 9-year-old me thought was totally epic). Still, I never predicted that I would find myself inside the dome of an iconic telescope, about to hear a classical music concert.
However, on a recent Sunday, I was at the Mt. Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains, waiting for the afternoon's performers: the Zelter String Quartet.
“Be here now for these particular wavelengths of light and sound,” said Dan Kohne, a member of the Mt. Wilson Institute board of directors, speaking to the audience from a makeshift stage on a terrace in the dome. At that moment, the steel walls of the dome opened, revealing the open sky. The audience whooped and hollered as the dome slowly began to rotate and we watched the trees and clouds pass by us.
One Sunday each month, the Mt. Wilson Observatory hosts a chamber music or jazz concert in the dome, which was founded in 1904 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and designed by D.H. Burnham. The telescope housed within it, the 100-inch Hooker Telescope, was completed in 1917 and reigned as the world's largest optical telescope until 1949. The famous astronomer Edwin Hubble used this same telescope to solve the long-running question of spiral nebulae. debated, observing other galaxies to be separate from our own. When I entered the space, I was captivated by the large size of the telescope, whose peak reached the top of the dome.
Violinist Kyle Gilner smiles as he plays with the Zelter String Quartet.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
The dome itself looks like a UFO that just landed on Earth. Its stark white metal exterior looks downright alien when juxtaposed with the trees and nature around it.
The idea of hosting live music in the dome was born from a conversation in 2017 between Kohne and Cécilia Tsan, a professional cellist and artistic director of the Mount Wilson Observatory concerts. Kohne described the space's acoustics as “extraordinary” and urged Tsan to bring her cello to try it out. She so she did she. A Facebook video of Tsan playing a song in the dome received 39,000 views.
Kohne and Tsan decided to work together to take advantage of the unique acoustics and create a celebration of music and science.
“Both science and music allow us to travel to new worlds,” Tsan said.
At the concert, seats were arranged in a semicircle facing the black-clad musicians: Carson Rick on viola, Allan Hon on cello, and Gallia Kastner and Kyle Gilner on violin. A silence took over the space as they began to play. They captivated the audience with their music, the instruments blending beautifully and reverberating as one throughout the dome. With each quick movement of their bows, the four of them breathed rapidly and in sync. The audience swayed subtly as they played music by Mendelsohn, Puccini and Todd Mason, often with their eyes closed and heads thrown back, overcome with emotion and soaked in the echoing sounds.
I felt a sense of calm throughout the performance, combined with awe at the space itself and its ability to bring so many people together.
“Listening to the acoustics in the dome makes you feel like you are in direct contact with the universe,” Tsan said. “It's comforting in a world that is so chaotic right now.”
The Zeller String Quartet performs in the dome housing the 100-inch (2.5-meter) Hooker Telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
