ADRIAN — Music from films as diverse as “Charade,” “King Kong,” and the “Lord of the Rings” and James Bond franchises are on the program for the Adrian Symphony Orchestra’s season-opening concert.
The performance, which the ASO has titled “Epic Soundtracks Live,” is at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, at Adrian College’s Dawson Auditorium. Tickets are $41/$35/$27 for adults, $39/$33/$27 for senior citizens, and $22/$19/$15 for students, and are available by calling 517-264-3121; online at adriansymphony.org; at the ASO offices in Mahan Hall, Adrian College, during business hours; or at the door beginning one hour before concert time.
Audience members are invited to participate in a costume contest during the concert by dressing up as their favorite movie characters. The audience will determine the winner.
In past years, the movie-music pops concert has been a very popular part of the ASO’s season in the February slot. This year, however, the orchestra decided to kick things off with this concert and do a different pops concert, one with a Valentine’s theme, in February.
“We think starting the season with this concert, which has been so successful, will be a nice way to start the year,” ASO Music Director Bruce Anthony Kiesling said.
Guest artist for the performance is Riley Hahn, a BFA student in the University of Michigan’s musical theater program, who will perform four of the James Bond films’ best-known songs: “For Your Eyes Only,” “Skyfall,” “You Only Live Twice,” and “Nobody Does it Better.”
Kiesling first met Hahn through a video audition she did last year. “I knew right away she’d be perfect for this,” he said. “She has the right voice for this type of music.”
In addition to the films listed above, movies such as “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Gladiator,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and “Back to the Future” are all represented.
“It’s all the stuff I love that isn’t John Williams,” Kiesling joked, a reference to the many times that iconic film composer’s music has been part of ASO pops concerts over the years.
While it was certainly difficult to narrow down the choices, the fact is that not every film score is especially adaptable to a concert format. “Not all films excerpt well,” he said, by having themes that can be lifted out of the larger soundtrack and played separately from the rest of the music.
And while there may not be any John Williams — who, incidentally, is a master when it comes to writing film scores that can be excerpted for the concert hall — on the program, having music from “Charade” will allow the audience to hear a composer who, in his day, was similar to Williams when it came to popularity: Henry Mancini.
Aside from Marvin Hamlisch, “Mancini was really the only other [film] composer to be a household name” in the 1970s, Kiesling said. “He had lots of hits on the pop charts.”
Mancini’s many hits from his film music include everything from “Baby Elephant Walk” from “Hatari!” to “Moon River” from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” to the “Pink Panther” theme.
Out of all that composer’s well-known film scores, Kiesling chose “Charade” for its opening sequence, which he described as having “almost a ‘Mission: Impossible’ vibe.”
With such a wide range of film genres and eras represented in the concert, everyone from kids to grandparents will probably hear music they know.
“We did kind of want it to be a little bit of everything — some new stuff, some classics,” Kiesling said.
‘Epic Soundtracks Live’
- Date and time: Sunday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m.
- Location: Dawson Auditorium, Adrian College
- Tickets: $41/$35/$27 ($39/$33/$27 for seniors, $22/$19/$15 for students)
- To order: 517-264-3121 or online at adriansymphony.org
