An American Symphony at Benaroya Hall​

In 2007 Mateo Messina scored the soundtrack for the Academy Award-nominated film “Juno” which helped launch his career as one of the industry's most talented and diverse young composers. Before the fame however Mateo had made it his mission to raise money for uncompensated care at Seattle Children's hospital which had been inspired by the tragic loss of a friend's daughter. His benefit concerts started in the late nineties and continue on to this day.  In 2008 I was humbled to be invited to be part of one of his benefit concerts which took place in Seattle's Benaroya Hall.

Mateo: “While on the journey of unfolding what An American Symphony would sound like, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a photographer I have come to admire. He sees our American landscape a little different than the rest of us. His portrayal of America is beautiful, immeasurable, and each image holds a surreal quality. I've worked with Gavin Farrell to handpick each image to be displayed across the entire backdrop of the symphony hall synchronized with each performance.”

I described the amazing evening that unfolded in this way: So where so many talented musicians and artists that had gathered for the event that they actually had to extend the length of the stage: Symphony composer Mateo Messina, the band Eisley, the Evan Sisters, Matthew Schoening, the North West Symphony, the Pacific Children’s Chorus, the North-West Chorale, The Whittier Elementary School Choir, the Total Experience Gospel Choir, Mariah McManus, and it felt like the entire city of Seattle was there! 

I worked closely with Mateo and he provided me with the timing of each of his compositions. That way I was able to render extremely slow "pan-ins" or "pan-outs" of my panoramic images so that as the each musician or orchestra was reaching the crescendo of the piece the image would resolve on some detail that had previously been hidden. ​