Steve Thomas is a composer, guitarist, and sound designer whose career bridges music, film, and planetary storytelling. Dan Barstow, Director of EarthMusicTheater.org, has broken new ground with creative exploration of visually compelling views of Earth from space. Thomas and Barstow have created more than a dozen Earth-themed films, featuring Thomas’ music with imagery captured by ISS astronauts. Their collaborations—designed to spark reflection on planetary stewardship—began in 2007 with Windows on Earth, commissioned for use on the ISS, and has recently expanded into the Earth Music Theater Live series.

The soaring sounds of the EMTL ensemble, led by Thomas, includes world-class musicians Carl Clements (bansuri, alto flute), Chris Cheek (alto sax), Clare Arenius (drums, percussion), and Josh Metz (double bass).  The ensemble weaves together sublime, genre-straddling music creating immersive soundscapes that evolve in real time with the stunning Earth imagery.

Cady Coleman is a former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel with more than 180 days in space, accumulated during two space shuttle missions and a six-month expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) as the Lead Robotics and Lead Science officer. Cady served in a variety of roles within the Astronaut Office, including Chief of Robotics, and lead astronaut for integration and operation of supply ships from NASA’s commercial partners. Before retiring from NASA, she led open-innovation and public-private partnership efforts for NASA’s Chief Technologist. Cady’s book, Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change is published by Penguin. She and her family were also recently featured in two documentaries, PBS’s Space: The Longest Goodbye, and The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station.