Cal Academy celebrates total solar eclipse with musical scientists

By James Salazar

The International Space Orchestra — a group of astronauts and other scientists — will visit The City this month for a special performance timed with the upcoming total solar eclipse happening in Europe. Courtesy Nelly Ben Hayoun Studio

A total solar eclipse is coming, and the California Academy of Sciences will host a unique educational and musical event to celebrate it.

Academy visitors on Wednesday will learn about how eclipses have shaped scientific discovery and take in an orchestral performance by a group of astronauts and other scientists. Scientists from the nonprofit SETI Institute in Mountain View will be in attendance, teaching patrons about the sun, eclipses and the tools researchers use to study the solar system.

The event will culminate with live-streamed eclipse coverage from Iceland and northern Spain, both of which are on the eclipse’s path of totality.

The broadcasts will be set to music by the International Space Orchestra. Formed 14 years ago, the group’s members come from the NASA Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, Singularity University and the International Space University.

The program is included with regular museum admission. The Academy’s spokesperson said it will showcase the imagination and collaboration that drive scientific advancements.

“Science is everywhere around us,” said Cal Academy spokesperson Jeanette Peach.

Cal Academy’s partnership with NASA and the SETI Institute led to the opportunity to host a live performance timed with the upcoming solar eclipse.

“There has often been a false dichotomy between art and science,” Peach said.

“The performance will help our visitors experience the power and deep connection forged when these two disciplines come together,” she said.

Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stepanian said the ISO was founded in 2012 out of a personal desire to “bring music, astronomy, counterculture and social dreaming into the same orbit.”

Conducted by two–time Grammy winner Evan Price, the ISO will play a new interpretation of “Voyager” by English singer-songwriter P.J. Harvey.

The song takes its name from NASA’s twin Voyager probes, launched in 1977, with a collection of sounds, music and greetings meant to represent life on the earth.

Stringed instruments combine with signals from a synthesizer sound machine to create a piece reflecting on humanity’s role in the universe, Hayoun-Stepanian said.

Hayoun-Stapanian said professional responsibilities mean orchestral members have little time to put their shows together.

“Given that everyone is used to working on space missions, we usually build harmony quickly,” they said.

For choir member Miryam Strautkalns, the ISO’s performance of “Voyager” in San Francisco will be a full-circle moment.

Strautkalns, a former NASA computer scientist, is married to Matthew Daigle, the orchestra’s guitarist. The couple met working together at NASA, and Strautkalns said Harvey is Daigle’s favorite artist.

Strautkalns said she hopes visitors are inspired by the performance to find their own creative outlets.

“It’s sometimes intimidating to go outside of the experiences we are comfortable in but it’s ultimately fun and rewarding,” she said.

Cal Academy spokesperson Jeanette Peach said patrons experiencing a “stunning natural event alongside a live orchestral performance will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” Photo: Craig Lee/The Examiner

Hayoun-Stepanian said Wednesday’s eclipse-themed celebration will also show visitors the role that institutions like Cal Academy can play in helping people “question our history and our place on this planet and the cosmos in order to be reminded that we are only a very, very tiny part of it.”

Though San Francisco isn’t in the eclipse’s path of totality, Peach said witnessing “this stunning natural event alongside a live orchestral performance will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The Academy is ready to give The City “an entirely new way to experience an eclipse and connect with not only nature and science, but with art as well,” Peach said.

First published at the San Fransisco Examiner, August 9, 2026