HOLLYWOOD BOWL MEMORIES

As part of the celebration of the Bowl’s first 100 years, we’ve asked performers and audience members to share with us stories and experiences from their time on and off the stage. You can watch the Hollywood Bowl 100 Memories series on the Bowl’s social media channels and enjoy these excerpts below.

JOANNE PEARCE MARTIN

I’ve been the keyboardist since 2001. My first weekend on the job I began at the Hollywood Bowl with John Williams. This was my first time playing with him at the Bowl and my first couple of nights as the keyboardist with the LA Phil.

He comes into his rehearsal in the morning. We get up there, and we rehearse several things with him. And then he starts looking at his stack of music, and there are some of the more popular things like the Superman march or the theme from [Raiders of the Lost Ark]. He starts looking at them and says, “We can just do this tonight without rehearsal.” There were four or five things, and I’m sitting there [anxious] thinking, “Oh. Gee.”

Speak about adrenaline rushes. The first concert comes that night, and it was pretty exciting to do those four or five [pieces] jumping back and forth. Everything went great, but my heart was definitely beating faster than normal.

BRAMWELL TOVEY

When you walk out on stage, that walk is about twice as far as you normally would go in a concert hall. I’m a bit of a klutz, so I’m always thinking, “My goodness, I’m going to trip, I’m going to collapse, I’m going to fall, I’m going to do something silly.” So by the time you get out to the podium, you’ve done the hardest bit of the concert usually.

You know what’s so nice, especially for someone who was not born in America, is to conduct “The Star-Spangled Banner.” To have the audience stand every night. The orchestra stand and face the flag. That’s really moving, and it helps to begin the evening. It’s sometimes those little things that set the atmosphere. It doesn’t look like anything much, but actually you’ve already set the atmosphere. You’ve sampled the Bowl by [taking part] in that experience.

THOMAS WILKINS

I love rolling down the window and watching people as you’re leaving [the Hollywood Bowl]. Because I love watching and experiencing the energy that’s in the space after a concert. There’s a new kind of joy and spirit where you get the sense that they feel their lives have just been enriched in this really neat way.

We’ve always had this model here where you can go to a concert anywhere, but we want your Hollywood Bowl experience to be unlike anything else. How cool is it that you can put 18,000 people into a space, and it still feels like a community? That’s the Hollywood Bowl right there. Everybody comes together, and they end up becoming one when they’re here. And that’s a great thing to be a part of.