Drawing Mars is inspired by the life of Percival Lowell, who was a 19th-century astronomer obsessed with the idea of life on Mars. The composer writes: "I don’t think the music in Drawing Mars tells a story about aliens invading Earth or of “first contact” or anything like that, but I do think it tries to get inside Lowell’s head as he looks through his telescope, night after night, in the dark, all alone, as his mind maybe starts to wander… and wonder… woah, what if I’m right? What if there is life on Mars?"Of course, we now know that Lowell’s imagination maybe got the best of him, but as Einstein said, “imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” (5:10)
