Guest Artist Presentation | José Francisco Salgado, Science & Symphony

KV 265 founder José Francisco Salgado will give a presentation detailing his creation of new visual art in KV 265's Science and Symphony series. Dr. Salgado will feature films created specifically for two orchestral works on a collaborative concert with University Symphony Orchestra on October 9, 2024: Respighi's Trittico Botticelliano and Michael Abels' Liquify. KV 265 seeks to heighten appreciation and understanding of art, music, science, and technology and to inspire further exploration of these disciplines among its audience members through multimedia concerts, lectures, and educational workshops.

José Francisco Salgado

José Francisco Salgado is an Emmy-nominated science communicator, experimental photographer, visual artist, and public speaker who creates multimedia works that communicate science in engaging ways. As the Executive Director and co-founder of KV 265, a non-profit science and arts education organization, Dr. Salgado collaborates with orchestras, composers, and musicians to present films that provoke curiosity and a sense of wonder about Earth and the Universe.

His Science & Symphony films have been presented in 260 concerts and 225 lectures reaching a combined audience of more than 490,000 people in 21 countries. Orchestras that have presented these works include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino. His first two films were named by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO as Special Projects for the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009). In 2012 his film Gustav Holst's The Planets was chosen for Ravinia Festival's One Score, One Chicago initiative. In 2014, his collaboration with composer Christopher Theofanidis, The Legend of the Northern Lights was premiered with Grant Park Orchestra in front of 32,000 people. In 2016, his short film Carol of the Lights was commissioned by Keith Lockhart and Boston Pops and presented 33 times to almost 75,000 people.

From 2006 until 2008 he hosted Nuestra Galaxia (Our Galaxy), a weekly astronomy news segment on Univision Chicago for which he received an Emmy nomination. As an experimental photographer, Dr. Salgado has visited more than 30 scientific sites in remote places including the Atacama desert, the French Pyrenees, and the South African Karoo, and has contributed visuals to documentaries produced for the History, Discovery, BBC, and National Geographic channels. As a public speaker, he has given talks in all seven continents, including a presentation at the South Pole.

His Science & Symphony films have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Salgado has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Michigan and his films have been recognized by UNESCO for their educational value.