MovieScore Media takes a trip to outer space with the seven movement concert work From Earth to Mars: A Symphonic Journey and two other pieces, Gate of Creation and El Rostro de la Luna. The centerpiece was first performed in December 2000 and was Rodríguez’s first professionally commissioned composition, ordered by The Kennedy Center / Imagination Celebration Fort Worth. By depicting the trip of the first human colony to Mars through the power of music, Rodríguez wrote seven movements of orchestral majesty in the style of his favorite ’80s sci-fi scores and composers such as John Williams, James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith. The recording on the album is performed by 80 musicians (and choir) of The New Millennium Philharmonic Orchestra.

The album includes two other self-contained pieces by Rodríguez. The opening track entitled “Gate of Creation” was commissioned for the Universidad de Monterrey for the opening of their Center for Art, Architecture and Design, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The first two performances in 2013 were accompanied by a light show projected onto the building. The album’s closing track is the composer’s latest composition, whose theme of space exploration nicely compliment From Earth to Mars. “El rostro de la Luna” (The Face of the Moon) was written especially for the orchestra that recorded it: the Orquesta Sinfónica de San Luis Potosí.

Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Arturo Rodríguez’s musical studies include the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Texas Christian University and Butler University. He is a Sundance Music Lab Composer Fellow (2010) and has been a participant for the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop (2003) and the 11th New York University Composers Seminar (2003). He has worked as an orchestrator with composers like Osvaldo Golijov and Stewart Copeland; he participated in the scores of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – Freedom Cry (2013), Elemental (2012), Zipper (2014) and Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt (2011). His score for The Maid’s Room (2013) has been released by MovieScore Media and Kronos Records.

MMS15012 
Release date (digital): April 28, 2015
Release date (CD): May 12, 2012