2025 marks 125 years since the birth of Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (NC 1919) and 100 years since her ground-breaking thesis described as “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy.”

Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin broke barriers to become a trailblazer in astronomy: she was the first to determine the chemical makeup of stars, the first woman promoted to full Professor at Harvard in 1956, and the first to lead a department there. Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and her discoveries, have inspired generations of astronomers since.

Anniversary events Friday 5, Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 December 2025

We are planning to celebrate the anniversary of Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and her extraordinary achievements with a weekend of events including a concert entitled The Infinite Shining Heavens.

Soprano Katherine Gregory (NC 2020) and pianist George Herbert 

Robert Schumann – Mein Schöner Stern

Franz Schubert – Nacht und Traume

Cecila McDowall – Angel’s at St Mary’s, Flight of Angels

Samuel Barber – Sure on this Shining Night

Henry Mancini – Moon River

Soprano Claire Booth and pianist Anna Tilbrook

Oliver Knussen – The Learn’d Astronomer

Franz Schubert – Die Sterne
Robert Schumann – Mondnacht
Alban Berg – Nacht
Clara Schumann – Mein Stern

Modest Mussorgsky – Noch (Night)
Sergei Rachmaninov – V molchani nochi  taynoy (In the Silence of the Secret Night)

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov – In the dark the Nightingale is Silent

Gustav Holst – Mercury from The Planets (arr. For four hands piano)

Thea Musgrave – The Man in the Moon
Elizabeth Maconchy – Clothed with the Stars

Muriel Herbert – How beautiful is night

Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Infinite Shining Heavens

Claude Debussy – Nuit d’etoiles
Claude Debussy – Clair de lune

Leonard Bernstein – I hate music