World Premiere of Di Castri’s “Long Is the Journey – Short Is the Memory” at the BBC Proms 2019

Zosha Di Castri has been commissioned to create a new work for orchestra and chorus that will open the First Night of the Proms alongside works by Janáček and Dvořák. For more information about the world premiere of Di Castri's Long Is the Journey – Short Is the Memory, with text by Xiaolu Guo, click here.

Long Is the Journey, Short Is the Memory commemorates the anniversary of Apollo 11’s mission to land the first person on the Moon (almost 50 years to the day of the premiere!) The piece also takes inspiration from the recent Chinese Chang’e-4 exploration of the far side of the Moon, including an experiment to grow plants in a sealed biosphere. Canadian composer Zosha Di Castri works with an original text by the Chinese-British novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo to create a new composition drawing on evocations of the Moon across human history, from ancient Chinese legends to Western poetic fragments.