THE ELFMAN PROJECT
Following the success of The Goldsmith Project, this is the first in a 3 year exploration of the work of four-time Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman. While Elfman has composed concert works as well, this is a rare opportunity to hear his film scores performed live!
Alexander Treger, conductor
David Newman, guest conductor
Danny Elfman, composer
Jon Burlingame, host
Women’s Chorus
4 pm Symposium:
Presented in partnership with the Film Music Society, the symposium will feature a discussion of Elfman’s innovative work and include a live performance of excerpts from the Errol Morris documentary Standard Operating Procedure.
7 pm Concert:
Stravinsky | Suite No. 2 for Small Orchestra
Bartók | Divertimento for Strings
Elfman | Selections from the scores of Batman, Sommersby and Edward Scissorhands (includes a music to film performance)
Concert and Symposium are free
The Elfman Project is supported by grants from The James Irvine Foundation and
LA County Arts Commission, and sponsored by BMI.
Special thanks to David Newman.
Special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
An Interview with Alexander Treger
Why did you ask David Newman to start a film music series with AYS?
About five years ago, we started talking about doing something different, and Jerry Goldsmith’s name came up. We decided to do a series of concerts of his music and Dave suggested that we connect it to classical repertoire. Dave is a great film composer himself and is very familiar with this repertoire. The Goldsmith Project has been very successful. It is important for the players because some of them will go on to careers with symphony orchestras, others will work in scoring sessions or a combination. I have done it in my life too. The mission of the American Youth Symphony is to prepare talented young musicians for real life: they need to read many different kinds of music with us.
David selected terrific scores for our new Elfman Project. Danny Elfman’s music is so strong and colorful. It can be so precious at moments, so delicate at others. It is very impressive. In rehearsal, it sounded terrific! Not every young musician has the opportunity to experience this. It is so different for them to perform film music because of the different timelines they have to express themselves. In film music, the musicians need to say so much, experience so much in 5 minutes – cues are short when compared to an entire symphony.
It is unusual to present classical music and film music on the same program. Do you think that people who enjoy music by Stravinsky and Bartok will also be interested in Danny Elfman’s music, or vice versa?
It has been done before – good music is good music. People recognize great music!
This is the last concert of the season; tell us about the results of your work and the development of the musicians.
