06-12-26 Interview - Fanny Curtat - A Celestial Event is Happening at St. John's Cathedral

A CELESTIAL EVENT IS HAPPENING AT ST. JOHN’S CATHEDRAL Saint John’s Cathedral is delighted to welcome the Denver community, Coloradans and visitors from all over the world to discover CELESTIA, an awe-inspiring, visual story in light and music for its highly anticipated world debut at downtown’s landmark cathedral.

The custom installation will reimagine the revered space and Gothic Revival architecture as a living canvas, inviting the community and audiences of all ages to embark on a visually stunning and emotionally profound journey through a fusion of light, projections and original music. Showcasing local talent, a vocal ensemble will perform live along with CELESTIA’s original score during Friday and Saturday night presentations. This one-of-a-kind experience is open through summer 2026. I’m talking to Fanny Curtat about it, find out more and buy tickets by clicking here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is called Celestia, and it is taking place all
summer long at Saint John's Cathedral in Denver. It is
a Friday and Saturday night thing. It will not interfere
in any way with services. I'm assuming and joining me
now to talk about it. Fanny Kurta with a Celestia. Fanny,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Thank you for having me. We're so excited to bring
this show in Denver.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
So explain what this is. Because I'm looking at the
visual I have it up on my computer screen. I'm
not sure I can explain what it is looking at
the visual. So what is this?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
So?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Celestia is a seated, immersive art experience that transforms Saint
John's Cathedral into a living canvas with projection light. There's
a sound design or no original music. It highlights the
Gothic architecture. It is designed to be visually stunning. It
is emotionally rich, It is inclusive, It is reverent of
the space, but it is truly truly welcoming of people

(00:58):
of all backgrounds.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Whose idea was this to go into these Gothic cathedrals
and create a show that plays up on the architecture.
Now that you said that I can absolutely see that
in the video that I'm watching.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yes, well, it's a collaborative process. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
The Gothic in and of itself is all about collaboration,
combining craftsmanship and perspective in order to create some bit
of an artistic vision. And that's what Celestia is. It's
poke entertainment group along with the creative studio called Normal
Studio Base where I am here in Montreal, and of
course Saint John's Cathedral, and through all of these perspective,
it's about creating a show that truly transcends belief.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
It is an art experience.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
It is about appreciating the Gothic and the importance that
it does.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
That it gives to.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Light to art as a means to elevate the mind.
That's really the core of this show.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
So there's also a choral aspect to it. Tell me
about the choral aspect.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
So, yeah, you have shows during the week and on
Friday and Saturdays. These are special because then you have
a live choir. You have eight people. They come from
the University, the School of La Mont School of Music,
and it really highlights the just how much the music
plays a part in an experience.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Like this, It is cinematic. It upflifts you.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
The whole show is truly contemplative and the music carries
sort of.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
This dreamlike quality.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
And when you do have the opportunity to see it
with the live choir, it makes it so so much
more unique.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Now, was this particular version of Celestia? Was this done
for this specific cathedral or is this more of a
we used Gothic cathedrals and went from there, or is
this specific to Saint John's in Denver?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
It was custom made for Saint John. It is really
it fits like a glove. So to create a show
like this, you need people to scan the entire church.
It's not just about the projection mapping, meaning that one projection,
one projector doesn't compete with the other one next to it.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
It's about fitting it into the architectural feature of the cathedral.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
So it is truly for this Denver landmark, and it
makes it so special because it is an incredible example
of Gothic revival. It is special and it needs to
be celebrated in that way, and Gothic is still inspiring.
It's really truly about the power of art. It's about
letting the light in it's about seeing how you can
be inspired and connected to something larger than yourself. So

(03:26):
all of these elements just boil down to the uniqueness
and the beauty and the natural mystery of Saint John's Cathedral.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
So it happens you just said all week, but the
live choir is only going to be on Friday and
Saturday night exactly. Okay, it is running through. When are
we looking at hare? I'm letting them pull it up. Oh,
it's running through.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
It's going, yes, on the way to the summer early September.
You have all of the information is on celestiaexperience dot com.
So if people want to have reserved seating, because you
have it's general emission, but you have an option for
a section that reserve seating. You also have the live
choir element, so people are encouraged to book earlier to

(04:05):
in order if they want to have these.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Features or not.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
But all of the information description of the show and
everything Celestia experience dot com.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
So how long is the show? How long are you
going to be at the cathedral so people can plan.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
So the whole experience is about forty five minutes. But
the show in and of itself, the projection elements are
about thirty minutes, okay, and it's really again something that's
truly dream like. So you have this whole journey, you
have every projecting element around you, It flows at ebbs
around you, and it really it goes on incredibly fast.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
All right, Fanny Kurta. I also put a link to
Celestiaexperience dot com on my blog at mandyblog dot com,
so people can just go find that if they like
to check it out. It looks absolutely stunning, and you know,
it's always fascinating to me when you've got all original music,
you've got this incredible specialized light show, you've got a

(05:00):
choir performances, You've got all these different pieces that all
come together all around this one cathedral to make this show.
I just I love the creativity behind this.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Oh it's really and it all stems from the cathedral
and the Gothic elements. You know. It was all about
this combination of talents of perspective in order to create
something that feels very universal but in which every person
can see a part of themselves. And a show like this,
it's bringing different perspective and elements, but it's also about

(05:30):
sharing those ideas, so everybody can take aspects.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
From the show that are going to be different.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
From their neighbors, so you can talk about it afterwards,
sharing it, connecting to others around you, connecting to something
longer than yourself.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
All of these are part of the experience of Celestia.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Fanny Karta, thank you for your time today, and I've
got everything linked up so when people are ready to
get their tickets they can go right there. Thank you
so much for your time, thank you for having me.
All right, that is Celestia experience, Doc. I'm totally going
to this