ORBITING ORBITAL to Have World Premiere at Schwarzman Centre Oxford

Inspired by Samantha Harvey's Booker Prize-winning novel Orbital, a remarkable, lyrical meditation on life aboard a space station, Orbiting Orbital is a new commission by Oxford University's Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities under the artistic direction of Nitin Sawhney, receiving its world premiere on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November 2026.

Orbiting Orbital, a contemporary oratorio, includes readings, music and images and features six new poems by Samantha Harvey, accompanied by six new pieces of music and a new cantata composed and performed by Nitin Sawhney with members of his band and the Fantasia Orchestra, with drawings by Antony Gormley and photography by Mary McCartney woven into a spectacular immersive setting. The cast will include readings and reflections from other invited voices in the presence of Samantha Harvey, including a filmed contribution by Professor Brian Cox.

The project, specially commissioned by the Schwarzman Centre, has been developed over the last year in a unique partnership between the artists and leading academics from Oxford University led by Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystem Science, Oriel College.

Together, they offer shifting perspectives on identity, human connection, and a world beyond borders, zooming into the personal and out to the planetary, exploring what it means to live, feel and belong in an interconnected universe.

Speaking about the work, Nitin Sawhney said: “When I first read Samantha Harvey's Orbital, when I served as a Booker Prize judge in 2024, I was quietly but profoundly moved. The novel holds the beauty of our planet and its vulnerability in the same frame, offering a perspective that feels both intimate and vast. I am honoured that this brilliant group of collaborators have joined me in this venture – an invitation to look carefully at the Earth we share and to discover what emerges when different creative disciplines gather around a single luminous idea.”

Samantha Harvey said: “Novels are written in silence and solitude, and so it must be, but most novelists - I'm no exception - dream of their work being amplified out of silence into new, unexpected echoes and arenas. Orbiting Orbital has been the realisation of that dream for me - a weaving of fiction, music, academia, mythology, visual art and science, a miraculous expansion of my novel into the world through the brilliance of others. Their brilliance has called my novel back to me, helped me see and connect to it in new ways.”

Professor Yadvinder Malhi said: “Academic research is one way of understanding and exploring our relationship with the world, just as literature and music are. All are inherently creative processes, with much to learn from one another. Yet opportunities for that exchange can be surprisingly rare. I'm immensely grateful to the Cultural Programme of the Schwarzman Centre for bringing a biosphere scientist like me together with such extraordinary artistic talent. I'm incredibly excited to see what emerges.”

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