Reading, MA – George Ogata will conduct the Reading Symphony Orchestra Pops concert on Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 7:30 P.M. This concert will be held at the William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center at Reading Memorial High School (62 Oakdale Rd., Reading). The theme of this annual Pops Concert will be soundtrack highlights from the Golden Age of Cinema to present.
Salute to John Williams
The RSO will begin the concert with a tribute to John Williams and the latest Star Wars movie with a performance of the Main theme from the original soundtrack (1977). In 2005, the American Film Institute named the original Star Wars soundtrack as the most memorable US film score of all time. The Kennedy Center Honors also paid tribute to John Williams in 2004, acknowledging America’s favorite film composer. Later in the program, Williams’ other memorable works for the silver screen will also be performed including themes from Jaws, Superman March, Harry Potter, Raider’s March and E.T.
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Can You Name That Film?
Themes from classical music often make their way into movie soundtracks. The RSO Brass section, assisted by timpani, will perform the ominous chords from the opening of Finlandia by composer Jean Sibelius. This theme was used in a very popular 1990 film sequel that took place at Dulles Airport at Christmas time. Can you guess its name? The orchestra will continue with Rossini’s William Tell Overture, which has the distinction of being featured in both movie and television soundtracks featuring the masked crusader for justice and his side-kick Tonto. Gustav Holst’s masterpiece The Planets was tremendously inspirational for John Williams and influences from Mars and Jupiter can be heard in many of his film scores. The RSO will perform both of these movements at this concert, snippets of which can be heard in a 1983 film about the making of astronauts.
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Something for Everyone
Lawrence of Arabia (1963) is widely considered as one of the greatest and most influential films in the history of cinema. Maurice Jarre composed the expansive and dramatic score (which won him his first Academy Award) in just six weeks after being a runner up to the producers’ first choices, William Walton and Malcolm Arnold who were both unavailable. This score ranks as third in the American Film Institute’s top twenty-five film scores. While younger listeners may not be familiar with Lawrence of Arabia, anyone under the age of thirteen will surely be thrilled when the RSO performs selections from Disney’s smash hit Frozen! Devotees of this 2013 animated triumph will recognize Do You Want to Build A Snowman, For the First Time in Forever, In Summer, and of course, Let It Go.
Get Your Tickets
Tickets for this concert are available at the door. Adult tickets are $15, Senior/Student tickets are $10, and children, 12 and under, are free. This program is supported in part from a grant from the Reading Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. We invite you to visit our website
www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org, friend us on Facebook (The Reading Symphony Orchestra), or follow us on Twitter @Reading Symphony.
