CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS, TAYLOR MARTIN, associate director
Friday, November 25, 2022 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 7:30pm Boettcher Concert Hall
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Presents A JOHN HUGHES Production A CHRIS COLUMBUS Film
MACAULAY CULKIN
JOE PESCI
DANIEL STERN JOHN HEARD and CATHERINE O’HARA Music by JOHN WILLIAMS
Film Editor RAJA GOSNELL Production Designer JOHN MUTO
Director of Photography JULIO MACAT
Executive Producers
MARK LEVINSON & SCOTT ROSENFELT and TARQUIN GOTCH
Written and Produced by JOHN HUGHES
Directed by CHRIS COLUMBUS
Soundtrack Album Available on CBS Records,Cassettes and Compact Discs
Tonight’s program is a presentation of the complete film Home Alone with a live performance of the film’s entire score, including music played by the orchestra during the end credits. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the credits.
Film screening of Home Alone courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. © 1990 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Home Alone in Concert produced by Film Concerts Live!, a joint venture of IMG Artists, LLC and The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc.
Producers: Steven A. Linder and Jamie Richardson Director of Operations: Rob Stogsdill Production Manager: Sophie Greaves Worldwide Representation: IMG Artists, LLC Supervising Technical Director: Mike Runice Technical Director: Steven Lemke
Music Composed by John Williams
Music Preparation: Jo Ann Kane Music Service Film Preparation for Concert Performance: Ramiro Belgardt Technical Consultant: Laura Gibson
Sound Remixing for Concert Performance: Chace Audio by Deluxe The score for Home Alone has been adapted for live concert performance.
With special thanks to: Twentieth Century Fox, Chris Columbus, David Newman, John Kulback, Julian Levin, Mark Graham and the musicians and staff of the Colorado Symphony.
CONCERT RUN TIME IS APPROXIMATELY 2 HOURs AND 9 MINUTES WITH A 20 MINUTE INTERMISSION
FIRST TIME TO THE SYMPHONY? SEE PAGE 8 OF THIS PROGRAM FOR FAQ’S TO MAKE YOUR EXPERIENCE GREAT!
In a career spanning more than six decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage, and he remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. He has composed the music and served as music director for more than one hundred films, including all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Superman, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, Home Alone and The Book Thief. His nearly 50-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler’s List, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, Lincoln, The BFG and The Post. His contributions to television music include scores for more than 200 television films for the groundbreaking, early anthology series Alcoa Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Chrysler Theatre and Playhouse 90, as well as themes for NBC Nightly News (“The Mission”), NBC’s Meet the Press, and the PBS arts showcase Great Performances. He also composed themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He has received five Academy Awards and fifty-two Oscar nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the secondmost nominated person in the history of the Oscars. He has received seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), twenty-five Grammys, four Golden Globes, five Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records. In 2003, he received the Olympic Order (the IOC’s highest honor) for his contributions to the Olympic movement. He received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in December of 2004. In 2009, Mr. Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. Government. In 2016, he received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute – the first time in their history that this honor was bestowed upon a composer. In 2020, he received Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, as well as the Gold Medal from the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society in the UK.
In January 1980, Mr. Williams was named nineteenth music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993 after fourteen highly successful seasons. He also holds the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood. Mr. Williams has composed numerous works for the concert stage, among them two symphonies, and concertos commissioned by several of the world’s leading orchestras, including a cello concerto for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic, a trumpet concerto for The Cleveland Orchestra, and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, the Boston Symphony premiered his concerto for harp and orchestra entitled “On Willows and Birches”, and in the same year, Mr. Williams composed and arranged “Air and Simple Gifts” especially for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama.
In 2021, Williams premiered his second violin concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood along with soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom he composed the work.
Ever since Home Alone appeared, it has held a unique place in the affections of a very broad public. Director Chris Columbus brought a uniquely fresh and innocent approach to this delightful story, and the film has deservedly become a perennial at Holiday time.
I took great pleasure in composing the score for the film, and I am especially delighted that the magnificent Colorado Symphony has agreed to perform the music in a live presentation of the movie.
I know I speak for everyone connected with the making of the film in saying that we are greatly honored by this event… and I hope that tonight’s audience will experience the renewal of joy that the film brings with it, each and every year.
John WilliamsAustralian conductor Christopher Dragon is the Resident Conductor of the Colorado Symphony and Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra. He joined the Colorado Symphony in the 2015/2016 Season as Associate Conductor – a position he held for four years. For three years prior, Dragon held the position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch.
Dragon has a versatile portfolio ranging from live-to-picture performances of Nightmare Before Christmas, Jurassic Park and Mary Poppins, a wide variety of collaborations with artists such as The Flaming Lips, Cynthia Erivo and Wynton Marsalis, to standard and contemporary orchestral repertoire such as Danny Elfman’s Violin Concerto, Eleven Eleven, all areas of which he has become highly sought after. Christopher has become known for his charisma, high energy and affinity for a good costume, consistently delivering unforgettable performances that has made him an audience favourite.
Recent season highlights include his subscription series debut with the San Diego Symphony, performances of Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton with Danny Elfman reprising the role of Jack Skellington and the historic Colorado Symphony performances with the Wu-Tang Clan at Red Rocks and the Mission Ballroom. Dragon’s upcoming debuts include concerts with the San Francisco Symphony and the Utah Symphony.
Christopher works regularly in Australia and has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with John Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year. Christopher’s other guest conducting includes Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016 Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Art Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.
Taylor Martin has served as Associate Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus since 2017. He made his Colorado Symphony conducting debut with Handel’s Messiah in 2019 and has been the conductor of the Colorado Symphony’s A Colorado Christmas since 2020. In the summer of 2022, Taylor conducted the Symphony Chorus for a concert tour of Austria, which included Bruckner’s Te Deum. In addition, he has prepared the chorus for multiple pops concerts. Taylor is the Artistic Director of ELUS, an innovative chamber choir. His passion for creative and thought-provoking programming has led the ensemble to considerable acclaim for their immersive presentations of repertoire ranging from great orchestral masterworks to new, imaginative works for unaccompanied choir.
The 2022/23 Colorado Symphony concert season marks the 39th season of the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe at the request of Gaetano Delogu, then the Music Director of the Symphony, the chorus has grown into a nationally respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances each year, to repeated critical acclaim.
The Chorus has performed at noted music festivals in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Colorado Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, where it has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony, under conductors Alan Gilbert, Hans Graf, Jaap van Zweden, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Fabio Luisi. For over twenty five years, the Chorus was featured at the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival, performing many great masterworks under the baton of conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murry Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, and Robert Spano.
Among the eight recordings the Colorado Symphony Chorus has made is a NAXOS release of Roy Harris’s Symphony No. 4. The Chorus is also featured on a Hyperion release of the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis. Most recently, the Colorado Symphony and Chorus released a world-premiere recording of William Hill’s The Raven
In 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the chorus, Duain Wolfe conducted the chorus on a three-country, two-week concert tour of Europe, presenting the Verdi Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl and Prague; in 2016 the chorus returned to Europe for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg and Munich featuring the Fauré Requiem. In the summer of 2022, the Chorus toured Austria, performing to great acclaim in Vienna, Graz and Salzburg.
Duain Wolfe, Founding Director and Conductor
Mary Louise Burke, Principal Associate Director and Conductor
Taylor Martin, Associate Director and Conductor
Jared Joseph, Conducting Intern
Hsiao-Ling Lin and ShaoChun Tsai Schneider, pianists
Eric Israelson, Chorus Manager/Librarian
Barbara Porter, Associate Chorus Managers
Claudia Dakkouri
Emily Eck
Kate Emerich
Alicia Irigoyen
Jean O’Nan
Barb Porter
Sue Von Roedern
Caitlin Wadman
Janie Darone
Daniela Golden
Sydney Peitler
Mary Thayer
Ryan Bowman Jack Dinkel
John Gale
Ken Kolm
Miguel Rangel Hannis Thompson
BASS
Bob Friedlander
Eric Israelson
Gene Nuccio
Ken Quarles
Josh Richards
Russ Skillings
Wil Swanson
Christopher Dragon, conductor
Cynthia Reneé Saffron, soprano
Karen Marie Richardson, mezzo-soprano
Rodrick Dixon, tenor
Too Hot to Handel Community Chorus
