“This album is about something we all have in common; this beautiful planet Earth that we all call home.” - William Shatner
This April, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) will release So Fragile, So Blue, a live recording of a 2022 DECLASSIFIED®: BEN FOLDS PRESENTS series concert featuring legendary actor, musician, activist, and recent space traveler William Shatner and led by Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke and NSO Artistic Advisor Ben Folds.
On October 13, 2021, Shatner became the oldest human, and only artist, to travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere after decades of famously portraying interstellar explorer, Captain James T. Kirk, on Star Trek. In this live concert experience with the NSO—held in honor of World Earth Day in 2022—Shatner performed original spoken-word lyrics, co-written with Robert Sharenow, that chronicle his transformative journey to space and articulate his unique and profound perspective on the fragility and vulnerability of nature and our planet, arranged and set to music by Jherek Bischoff, Daniel Miller, Gabriel Witcher and Eric Allen.
“This recording brings the past two years of adventure and music full circle,” Shatner said. “Going up into space was beyond anything I could have imagined, and I felt we had to write songs that truly encapsulated the experience. Robert and Dan, along with the NSO, proved to be perfect partners in this endeavor. This album is about something we all have in common: this beautiful planet Earth that we all call home.”