Symphony Central Coast opens its 2022 season with an ark-raiding, time-shifting, sheep-herding concert, bigger than Ben Hur, as we celebrate the magnificent music of the movies. Today you will hear music from some of the most loved films of all time, written by the world’s most accomplished composers. As well as Hollywood blockbusters, we have a selection of music by Australian composers and, as a bonus, there will be two films with live music performed by your local symphony orchestra. Our Artistic Director and Conductor, Dr Steven Stanke says, “Performing film music is incredibly exciting and satisfying because it is often the most complex and challenging music of our age. Composers are extremely creative when scoring films and often a full symphony orchestra is the only way to perform them completely.” We acknowledge all First Peoples of this land and celebrate their enduring connections to Country, through knowledge and stories. We pay our respects to Elders and Ancestors who watch over us and guide our communities.
PERFORMANCE PARTNERS
SPECIAL THANKS TO Rotary Club of Terrigal Patrick Brennan Central Coast Conservatorium of Music Romy Hodgson and the staff of The Art House Leslie Photography
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Miklós RÓSZA Toby FOX Bernard HERMANN Nigel WESTLAKE Steven STANKE
Ben Hur (1959) Undertale (2015) North by Northwest (1959) Babe (1995) Buster Keaton's ‘Cops’ (1922)
John BARRY Thunderball (1965) Hans ZIMMER Batman: The Dark Knight (2008) Christopher GORDON Mao’s Last Dancer (2008) - Becoming a Dancer Alan SILVESTRI Back to the Future (1985)
Nicolette BOAZ A Day in the Life of (2020) John WILLIAMS Indiana Jones (1981)
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We welcome you most warmly to our concert today at The Art House, Wyong. After a very satisfying and well-received ‘Lights, Action, Music!’ concert in 2021, it would be entirely irresponsible of us not to offer a return visit to some of the greatest orchestral music from modern times. Film music can be epic, filled with intrigue or suspense. Or it can be tender or evocative, touching our emotions. Today’s concert will be a magical experience, bringing film scores to life, evoking familiar scenes and stirring memories. We hope that you enjoy the ride.
Miklós Rózsa is one of the fathers of modern film music, writing for classics such as ‘Double Indemnity’ and ‘Spellbound’. He used his European training in music composition to add lush melodies, sweeping orchestrations and powerful musical statements to create epic and unforgettable cinematic experiences. His influence on later film composers such as John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Alan Silvestri is inestimable. Who can forget the main themes from ‘Indiana Jones’, or ‘Back to the Future’?
Also on the program is music from some of Australia’s most creative and talented film composers. ‘Babe’ from 1995 is a comedy drama with music by Nigel Westlake. Christopher Gordon, one of Australia’s most prolific composers, gives us the music to ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’. Buster Keaton’s classic comedy ‘Cops’ has a new soundtrack and the orchestra will also be performing the world premiere of Nicolette Boaz’s ‘A Day in the Life of’, accompanying the films ‘Iridium’ and ‘First Footprints’ by Murray Fredericks. Happy listening and viewing, Steven
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Miklós RÓSZA
Toby FOX
A child prodigy, Miklos Rózsa learned to play the violin at the age of five and could read music before he was able to read words. In 1926, he began studying at the Leipzig Conservatory and obtained his doctorate in music in 1930.
Toby Fox, born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, was a video game lover as a kid and spent countless hours in front of the console, playing his favourite role-playing games.
While writing the score for The Thief of Baghdad (1940), he relocated to Hollywood where he remained gainfully employed for the next 40 years. An expert in orchestration and counterpoint with a great flair for the dramatic, he often concentrated on the psychological aspects of a film. Few composers have managed to convey suspense and tension as powerfully as Rózsa with his eerily haunting scores for some of the era’s best films – Double Indemnity (1944), The Killers (1946) and Ivanhoe (1952).
He is a self-taught musician and started his career in video games as a composer. He was a huge fan of the popular video game ‘Earthbound’ and an active member of its online fan community, ‘Radiation,’ which later became his alias. In June 2013, Toby launched a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for the game ‘Undertale’ and managed to rake in more than 10 times the amount that he had aimed. The game was released in 2015 and received huge critical and commercial success, making Toby a celebrity overnight.
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Bernard HERMANN
Nigel WESTLAKE
The man behind the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. Hermann started early, winning a composition prize at age 13 and founding his own orchestra at age 20.
Nigel studied clarinet with his father, Donald Westlake (principal clarinettist of Sydney Symphony Orchestra and, from the age of 17, toured Australian and internationally as a freelance player with ballet companies, a circus troupe, chamber music ensembles, fusion bands and orchestras.
After writing music for Orson Welles’ radio shows in the 1930s, including the notorious 1938 ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast, he was the obvious choice to score Welles’ film debut, Citizen Kane (1941). Hermann wrote nine scores for Alfred Hitchcock and ended his partnership with the director after his score for Torn Curtain (1966) was rejected. His last score was for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and died just hours after recording it.
As a composer for the screen, his film credits include Ali’s Wedding, Paper Planes, Miss Potter, Babe, Babe: Pig in the City, Children of the Revolution and The Nugget, plus IMAX films Antarctica, The Edge and many others. In 2016 he made his US conducting debut at Lincoln Centre with the New York Philharmonic.
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Buster KEATON Joseph Keaton (1895-1966) was given the name ‘Buster’ after falling down a flight of stairs when he was 3 and was picked up and dusted off by Harry Houdini, who said to Keaton’s father Joe, that the fall was ‘a buster.’ A savvy showman, Joseph made sure that the name stuck. At age four, Buster began acting with his parents on the vaudeville stage, their act gaining a reputation as one of the roughest in the country, for their wild physical antics, which included young Buster being thrown about in elaborate, dangerous stunts. By 1920 Buster had moved into short films and then, by 1923, full length feature films. The General (1926) was the most expensive film to date, wowing audiences when a bridge collapsed while a train was passing over it, sending the train into the river.
John BARRY John Barry’s father owned several cinemas in York and as a teenager, in the late 1940s, Barry would operate the projection box on his own. He soon began to assimilate the music that accompanied films and a chance meeting in 1957 with singer Adam Faith at a BBC TV recording lead to commissions for commercial recordings. He wrote the score for Faith’s big screen debut Wild for Kicks (1960) and, becoming known as a highly inventive, diverse and adaptable composer, was in prime position to be offered a chance to score the first James Bond film Dr No (1960). He scored three more Bond films plus Walkabout (1970), King Kong (1976), Out of Africa (1985), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Dances with Wolves (1990), Indecent Proposal (1993) and many others.
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Hans ZIMMER
Christopher GORDON
Zimmer’s initial foray into film composition in the 1980s earned him the reputation of being the father of integrating the electronic music with traditional orchestral arrangements. His score for Rain Man (1988) won Best Picture Score at the Oscars and his following film Driving Miss Daisy was also won Best Picture.
Sydney-based Christopher Gordon has written three ballets for Graeme Murphy: The Hedonists (a.k.a Seven Deadly Sins), The Happy Prince and Giselle and the Wraith Queen. Other commissions include Lightfall for Horn and Orchestra and Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra (Sydney Symphony, Peace on Earth (Gondwana Voices and Sydney Symphony), works for Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Children’s Choir and other works for choir and orchestra.
Later films include The Lion King (1994), which earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, a Tony and two Grammys, Gladiator (2000), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), Black Hawk Down (2001), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Interstellar (2014), and Dune (2021). He has also scored more than 100 episodes of The Simpsons (2017-2022).
His film scores include Ladies in Black (2018), Mao’s Last Dancer (2009), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and On the Beach (2000).
He wrote the score for the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
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Alan SILVESTRI
Nicolette BOAZ
Born in New York City, Alan Silvestri has built a reputation for exciting and melodic film scores and, with a list of over 100 films, has composed some of the most recognizable and loved themes in movie history.
Nicolette is a Sydney-based composer who has worked on many documentaries, particularly those with a social conscience. For over 25 years she has composed for many mediums and also taught music to children, teenagers and tertiary students.
He started in 1972 with The Doberman Gang, and was a forerunner in energetic synthpop scores with TV’s highway patrol hit CHiPs. This action driven music caught the attention of a young filmmaker named Robert Zemekis who asked him to score Romancing the Stone (1984). Their decades-long collaboration continues to this day and have given us the Back to the Future trilogy (19851990), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000), The Polar Express (2004), and Forrest Gump(1994).
She holds a degree in Contemporary Music with majors in composition and Aboriginal studies where she was awarded the Gungil Jindaba prize. Recent works include soundtracks for Laura’s Choice (2020), Angels Gather Here (2017), Show Me the Magic (2012) and Our Generation (2010).
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John WILLIAMS In a career that has spanned more than 70 years (he recently turned 90), John Williams has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history. His early TV scores include Gilligan’s Island and Lost in Space and he played piano on To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
CONCERT #2 | 26 June | Venue TBA
FAST RIDE Ginastera – Estancia: Four Dances Smetana – The Moldau Honegger – Pacific 231 Abbott – Fast Ride in a Suave Machine Saint-Saëns - Cello Concerto no. 2, Bayden Tham, soloist
CONCERT #3 | 18 September | Venue TBA
NORDIC LIGHTS Sibelius - Finlandia Nielsen – Symphony no. 1 Sibelius – Violin Concerto, Madeleine Easton, soloist
CONCERT #4 | 27 November | Venue TBA
FAIRY TALES Dvorak – The Noon Witch Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade Offenbach – Tales of Hoffman Ravel – Mother Goose Liadov – Baba Yaga Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker Williams – Harry Potter
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Violin 1
Yuko Hughes Natalie Adby Chaylah Chivas Elizabeth Blajet Faith McLeod Philippa Collins* Elissa McGregor
Violin 2
Sarah Fisher-Dobbin Rachel Montalbano Reg Lear Eva Koslowski Sam Gerani Kaito Deed
Viola
Jill Robinson Amba Mercuri Rosemary Lovell Helena Hutamale Suzie Kim*
Cello
Flute
Nicole Wyatt* Rose Priest
Oboe
Michael Wyatt
Piano Gerard Nicolls
Rachel Tolmie* ^ Lindsay Kaul Robyn Crowley^
Harp
Clarinet
Timpani
Helen Hamlin Phillip Stroud Ryan Ambrose
Karen Hickmott
Stephan Muehr
Percussion
Zola Baldwin Joe Wolfe
John Alley Jillene Donnelly David Wells Shavaunne Newman
Horn
Stage Manager
Bassoon
Chris Hunt^ Melissa Shields Arthur Webster
Natalie Lambert Hilary Day Keiko Clements Heather Hinrichs* Zoe Bamber
Trumpet
Bass
Phillip Rutherford* Riley Smith David Markham*
Ian Esplin Vhairi Todd Darryl Neve Ayrton Gilbert
Tuba
Michael Tierney Jackson Hood Jacinta Boyd
Trombone
Melissa Urquhart
Artwork
Steven Stanke
* Central Coast Conservatorium teacher ~ Central Coast Grammar School student ^ Central Coast Grammar School tutor
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