Seafarers have for centuries navigated frozen climes by avoiding distant clouds that are illuminated from below, a signal that treacherous ice is reflecting sunlight upward. The mariners call the phenomenon "ice blink," which tells them to steer toward darker skies and safety.

Adventurer and flutist Brooks de Wetter-Smith, a music professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, has been intrigued by the beckoning iceblink of Antarctica since he was a boy. He finally found his way there a little more than a year ago after dreaming up a project that combined his love of music and nature into an unusual concert.

The result, "Iceblink," is a 45-minute multimedia work composed of de Wetter-Smith's photographs from his Antarctic trip set to a chamber orchestra, soprano and narrator performing music written by composer Allen Anderson, who is also a UNC-CH professor. It will all come together live for the first time in an open rehearsal Saturday followed by the premiere April 27, both at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

It is as much about saving the planet as it is about art.

"I was trying to put a face on what most people feel is this amorphous land at the bottom of the Earth," de Wetter-Smith said in a recent interview in his office on campus. "I hope that people see that it is worth preserving, not just for its beauty but for its impact on our lives."

De Wetter-Smith has made his living as a musician, but nature photography has been his second love for a long time, he says. That has worked out well for someone who has also done some serious trekking or climbing in the Himalayas, the Andes and the deserts of the Middle East, snapping photos all the way.

"I've always been interested in living on the edge -- not the edge of danger but the edge where humanity interfaces with the natural environment," he said.

Antarctica is an important place: It influences weather patterns, and it has been affected by global warming. He didn't want to remake Al Gore's documentary or the "March of the Penguins" movie, which have shaped much of the current popular view of the continent. He had another plan.

In 2005, de Wetter-Smith refined the multimedia idea and began raising the $20,000 to pull it off. The university chipped in, Canon USA provided backup photography equipment, the science museum committed money and the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild took on the role of commissioning the music with financial help from the N.C. Arts Council.

The flutist-adventurer enlisted composer Anderson, who had long wanted to work on a multimedia piece, and the two discussed in general terms what kinds of photographs de Wetter-Smith might shoot there. Anderson would stay behind, largely because of the cost.

'I was just a blip'

In December 2006, de Wetter-Smith boarded a National Geographic ship on an excursion run by Lindblad Expeditions, which organizes small-scale adventure trips as a way of promoting environmental awareness and protection -- aligning with his own motives.

The voyage on the 100-person ship, which included research scientists and ecotourists, twice passed through the Drake Passage along the Cape Horn, which separates the Antarctic Peninsula from South America. Major storms roll through regularly, and de Wetter-Smith's ship was slammed on the return trip.

"The worst seas in the world," he said. "It was not fun."

When he could muster the stomach to go on deck, de Wetter-Smith photographed 40-foot waves crashing overhead.

When the ship emerged from the stormy seas and eased toward land, the reward was more than he had hoped for. He hadn't expected so much color: blood-red water reflecting the sun, icebergs compacted over the centuries until they filter the light blue.

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