THE STOWAWAY ASTRONAUT

The Stowaway Astronaut uses words and music to portray an actual historic event from the early days of the U.S. space program - the first U.S. spacewalk by Astronaut Ed White - and uses an adult and a youth as narrators of the event. The adult narrator (off stage) provides the "Walter Cronkite" voice-over that introduces each of the three sections in The Stowaway Astronaut. The youth narrator (on stage) provides the first-person account of the fictional 12-year-old stowaway's adventure on the Gemini 4 spacecraft - the actual spacecraft that carried two NASA astronauts to that first historic spacewalk.

The orchestration alternates between solo orchestral passages and passages that underscore the youth narration. And narration cues are also included in both the conductor score and the musician parts. Overall, The Stowaway Astronaut works very well as a fun and entertaining piece for school and youth concert programs, and family audiences.

Level - Geared toward intermediate-level youth orchestras and is also very accessible for a community orchestra. In addition, it provides a unique and engaging experience for school and youth orchestras to work and perform with narrators in a concert performance, and accompany live narration.

Duration - 11 Minutes

Note: The original version of The Stowaway Astronaut was commissioned by BYSO of Bellevue, Washington and performed twice - first to commemorate a special anniversary and again to commemorate their 50th anniversary. A fully revised and expanded version of The Stowaway Astronaut is provided here and was completed in 2020.