Where: Stephens Auditorium

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5

Hear them: Mannheim Steamroller “2007 Tour Fresh Aire Music” (2-CD set)

Members: Composer and founder Chip Davis with five additional singers, a symphony orchestra of 20 and a multimedia screen that will synchronize with the music.

Story behind the concert: “Music of the Spheres” was a theoretical principle dreamed up by astronomer Johannes Kepler. In this 17th century theory, based on a previous theory by Pythagoras, Kepler hypothesized that the distance of the orbits of planets mimicked the distance of music notes by frequency.

Although the theory was eventually proved incorrect, Davis, an amateur astronomer, wanted to help celebrate America’s passion for space exploration. The concert’s intent is to bring Davis’ enthusiasm to the audience.

“I want to help people realize what cool stuff happens as a result of space exploration. A bunch of inventions would not exist if it weren’t for space exploration,” Davis said.

As an added bonus, Jim Kennedy, former director of the Kennedy Space Center, will give a brief history of space exploration, how the space program started and what the future holds.

Concert-goers can look forward to an attention-grabbing event. Forty-five minutes before the start of the concert, monitors will be showing the pre-launch countdown of the space shuttle Discovery.

Played in real time, the launching of the shuttle will kick off the start of the concert. Davis planned the “launch” to be as loud as Discovery’s actual departure.

“It will rock the building,” Davis said.