October alone is jammed with major film music events across the nation. Today in Anaheim, Calif., a 58-city tour of the arena show "Star Wars: In Concert" kicks off at the Honda Center. On Friday and Saturday (Oct. 9-10), New York's Radio City Music Hall will play host to nearly 300 musicians and singers performing Howard Shore's "Fellowship of the Ring" score live while the three-hour film unspools.
In the Emerald City, the Seattle Symphony will play Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" score live to the Hitchcock picture Oct. 29-31 in Benaroya Hall.
And in greater L.A., John Williams will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an all-film music concert Oct. 16-18, and John Mauceri will perform an all-Disney music program Oct. 20, both at Walt Disney Concert Hall; the Golden State Pops Orchestra will devote most of its Oct. 24 program to music from both incarnations of "Battlestar Galactica" at the Warner Grand theater in San Pedro, Calif.; and Ennio Morricone will make his West Coast debut at the Hollywood Bowl Oct. 25.
Lest we think this is more of the same (film scores have been a staple of pop concerts for decades), the report ends with this:
The Chicago and Cleveland Symphony Orchestras (two of the so-called Big Five, which also include New York, L.A. and Boston) have added film music concerts to their [regular] subscription lineups in recent years, suggesting that film music may finally be moving away from the pop-concert ghetto.
Click through to the Variety article for some good quotes from David Neumann, Richard Kaufman, John Goberman and John Waxman.
(H/T Kristin Thompson)
