> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Mass appeal: Dome music blows into SM
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/mass-appeal-dome-music-blows-into-sm/
- Published: 2005-12-02T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:15:35.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Entertainment, Pier, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

The internationally renowned Mass Ensemble’s large-scale instruments and kinetic performances have entertained audiences throughout the U.S. and abroad. Now it’s here in Santa Monica, positioned on the pier with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop.

The performance group that invented the world’s largest stringed instrument has partnered with the design firm o2 creative solutions to create Mass Music Dome, a completely immersive visual and musical performance event, in which the venue is the musical instrument.

Mass Music Dome employs geodesic dome technology, originally developed by Buckminster Fuller in 1954, to create a complex instrument whose music can be experienced from within. The skin of the dome acts like a percussion instrument, resonating the hundreds of strings on the interior and exterior of the dome while simultaneously playing the part of canvas to a 360-degree projection of visual imagery. Architecturally and artistically, Mass Music Dome is the ultimate integration of form and function.

The show will be held at the Santa Monica Pier through Dec. 4 and Dec. 7 through 11\. All shows are at 8 p.m. except on Dec. 4 which is at 7 p.m. and Dec. 11 which is at 6 p.m. Tickets for the standing lounge are $30, general admission is $40 and VIP seating is $50.

Dec. 4 will feature a celebrity night performance benefiting the David Lynch Foundation and an after party featuring a live vintage poster art display with the famous playboy models and champagne art. Tickets to the special event night are $75\. Tickets can be purchased at www.massmusicdome.com.

Mass Music Dome performers include: Billy Close, artistic director, instrument designer, earth harp, drums sculptures; Andrea Brook, associate director, earth harp, wing harp, drums sculptures; Chrysta Bell, vocals; Cameron Morgan, guitar, aquatar, vocals; Rich Sherwood, drums and drum sculptures; Chris Woods, violin.

The collaboration of o2 creative solutions with Mass Ensemble is a logical product of the two organizations’ exploitation of unique, multi-dimensional experiences through the use of art, communications and technology.

For Mass Music Dome, o2 creative solutions uses advanced projection and lighting technology to transform the skin of the dome into animated architecture, awash with motion graphics and visual energy. The music Mass Ensemble creates evokes classical, new age, avant-garde, trance, rock, pop and world music themes, while the playing of the instruments is, in itself, a dance.

Non-traditional lighting and graphics, custom-programmed by o2 creative solutions, are integrated with the individual instruments, so that specific visual images are triggered to animate across the dome by the playing of each string or drum pad. The instruments are constructed to literally play the dome and are at the heart of the performance, creating an atmosphere of extraordinary visual beauty and dynamic sound, made all the more dynamic and immediate by the inclusion of an interactive playbill which will invite the audience to “play along” with the musicians of Mass.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/120205-14_01.jpg)

to the Daily Press Mass Music Dome players perform their innovative brand of concert on Thursday at the Santa Monica Pier. (Photo: Derek Goes/Special)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 2, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)