LIGHTS, ACTION, MUSIC! 2023

Symphony Central Coast returns to The Art House, Wyong in 2023 after a triumphant concert in 2022 Today you will hear music from some of the biggest and most loved films from the big screen, written by some of the world’s most accomplished film composers. And we are proud to announce new partnerships with the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, Screen Australia and Central Coast Composers Collective as we perform music by Australian composers, seeking an outlet for their skills and visions.

Our Artistic Director and Conductor, Dr Steven Stanke says, “We enjoy the challenges of performing film music; it’s often the most complex and challenging music of our age. And we are particularly excited to introduce to you a new generation of local film music composers. ”

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

Central Coast Grammar School

Australian Film Television and Radio School: Cameron Patrick, Greg Wise Screen Australia

Aaron Trew and the Central Coast Composers Collective

Greater Bank

The Art House: Nathan Hardy

Alfred NEWMAN

Maurice JARRE

Michael GIACCHINO

Lochlan PENNY

Christina BOWDEN

W.A. MOZART

James MOUNTAIN

Sophie STEELE

Steven STANKE

20th Century Fox fanfare

Lawrence of Arabia Up

The Leaf Lands, It Doesn’t Plan

Bonemeal

Elvira Madigan

Isolation Imagine The Tell-Tale Heart

Joe HISAISHI

Nodira ISLAM

Nodira ISLAM

Scott MAJIDI

Ryuichi SAKAMOTO

Ray LIN

Elena MATIENKO

Naomi GESTE

Spirited Away

Elephant Dream

Collision

Atlas, No Compass

Merry Christmas, Mr Laurence

A Luminous Miracle

Twin Filament

Code Blue Note

(orch. Isaac GLOVER)

Trevor JONES

Mark WILLIAMS

Jerry GOLDSMITH

The Last of the Mohicans

AscenDance

Star Trek

We welcome you most warmly to our concert today, the third in our LIGHTS, ACTION, MUSIC! series at The Art House. Film music is often the most accessible and frequent orchestral music that we encounter so it is with some excitement that we dip our toes into the film music pond, as it were and perform for you some of the most loved and accomplished scores written for the big screen.

Music for film can be tender or evocative, drawing out and highlighting emotions or life experiences. It can also be epic, perhaps even stealing a scene, creating maximum drama, energy or suspense. There is no doubt that Wolfgang would be surprised to see and hear some of a piano concerto he wrote in 1785 used in a drama filmed in 1967 about a circus performer who lived and died in the 1880s. But this is the magic of film music. A tune, a texture, or a rhythm might be all that is required to add that

finishing touch to a director’s vision.

We are particularly pleased to partner with the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and Aaron Trew’s Central Coast Composer Collective to bring you music from a new generation of composers. Some are just starting while others are further along their path but we welcome them all here today as we offer them some time with a full symphony orchestra – not a common experience but one that fits right in with our desire to be a voice for contemporary, local composers.

Happy listening and viewing, Steven

In a career spanning more than forty years, Alfred Newman composed the scores for over 200 movies, including How Green Was My Valley, Love is a Many Splendored Thing and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

The French composer was OSCAR nominated nine times and won three, all with legendary British director David Lean. He composed the scores for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Witness, A Passage to India and Ghost.

Michael’s films include Up, Ratatouille, Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek – Rogue One, Doctor Strange, and the SpiderMan films Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home and Thor: Love and Thunder.

“I was born on the Central Coast and have spent most of my life here, playing music and exploring the bush with my mates. Music has always been a really strong force in my life ever since I was a child.”

Alfred NEWMAN

Maurice JARRE

Michael GIACCHINO

Lochlan PENNY

Christina BOWDEN

Christina completed a B.Mus. in Composition at QLD Conservatorium of Music in 2021 and is currently a Master of Arts Screen: Music student at AFTRS. Over the last 5 years, she has worked as a composer, conductor, orchestrator, music director and tutor.

W.A. MOZART

A prolific and influential composer of the late 18th Century, Mozart wrote works that are acknowledged as the pinnacles of their genre. Born too early for film music, gone too soon.

James MOUNTAIN

James is an award-winning, Sydney-based composer of music for concert, stage and screen including prizes for Best Fiction Film at 2021 and 2022

CAPA CILECT and Best Original Music in an Australian short film at 2023 Flickerfest film festival.

Sophie STEELE

Sophie is a composer with a creative mind and free spirit. She began composing in Yr 12 while completing a course in film scoring which included both instrumental works and songs. Her music explores freedom, strong emotions and adventure, and Sophie is confident of many future epic symphonies!

Steven STANKE

Steven studied composition, music theory and conducting at QLD Conservatorium of Music and University of Melbourne. He has been Artistic Director and Conductor of SCC since 2014, writing and arranging numerous orchestral works.

Joe is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. He is also a prolific composer for piano.

Nodira ISLAM

Nodira has written scores for Australian short films Delivered, Quetta Brown, Doctor Love, Call It Anything, Last Doughnut, Nina, First Blood and Mirror Image. She began writing for media and film in Uzbekistan in 2007, Uzbekistan films include Jazo, Maktub, Majruh and Baron.

Scott is a Sydney-based composer whose output traverses a range of mediums, from concert works to music for stage and screen. Originally from WA, he has composed, produced and recorded scores for various projects, including collaborations with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and TaikOz.

Joe HISAISHI

Scott MAJIDI

Ryuichi SAKAMOTO

Ryuichi Sakamoto has won an OSCAR, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and 2 Golden Globes for his film scores. Merry Christmas, Mr Laurence (1983) marked his debut as a film-score composer and his most successful film was The Last Emperor (1987).

Ray LIN

Queensland Music Award winner Ray Lin is a versatile composer, arranger, and conductor specialising in music for concert hall and screen. His music has been featured internationally in the US and China; and through a range of prestigious venues and platforms in Australia, including QPAC, ABC ME, Brisbane City Hall, 4MBS Classic FM, Old Museum Concert Hall, GOMA and more.

Lena MATIENKO

Lena Matienko is a Russian composer, pianist, songwriter, music producer, and vocalist known for her emotive and magical soundscapes. With classical training in piano, she blends orchestral and electronic instruments with ethereal vocals to create a unique sonic experience. Lena's passion for film scores led her to complete a Master of Arts in Screen Composition at AFTRS (Australian Film Television and Radio School) in 2022.

Lena's music is a masterful combination of sombre and whimsical elements, showcasing her talent for blending sweeping cinematic and dreamy neoclassical styles. She brings her musical visions to life through her skilled and nuanced self-production, resulting in a captivating and artful sound.

Naomi is a Boorloo (Perth) musician, composer and WAAPA Honours graduate. Over the past 8 years Naomi has drawn on decades of music tuition and refined her craft as a songwriter, music producer, vocalist and music educator. From harmony-driven art-pop, lush string arrangements, understated piano melodies to rousing pop bangers, Naomi’s emotive sensibilities create music to feel to. It is this sensitivity, combined with a growing fluency of screen language and a passion for the craft that Naomi cuts to the core of the audience’s experience.

Naomi GESTE

Isaac GLOVER

Isaac is a composer, performer and percussion specialist currently completing a Master of Arts Screen: Music at AFTRS. He began his musical career taking drum lessons in his hometown of Mt Isa, QLD and his style has matured into lavish orchestral arrangements which consistently translate richly into a performance environment. His compositions and arrangements have been performed in Norway, Germany, Canada, US, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

Trevor JONES

Trevor grew up in Cape Town and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music when aged 17. His films include Time Bandits, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Brassed Off, Notting Hill, and I,Robot

Jerry GOLDSMITH

Jerry scored five films in the Star Trek series, as well as Logan’s Run, Planet of the Apes, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Patton, Chinatown, Alien, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Total Recall, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, Mulan and The Mummy.

Mark Douglas WILLIAMS

Mark is a song writer and composer for screen and ‘immersive’ 3D media. With a background in visual design, education and rich media web development, Mark’s passion as a music creator has been closely aligned with both visual communication and the desire to create multi-sensory experiences across a range of media.

Mark completed a Master in Screen Music at AFTRS in 2019 where he created Heartscapes, a player driven 3D spatialised ‘moving’ music experience. He has composed for two award-winning films: Gut Feeling and Father, and developed spatialised music for the award-winning virtual reality animation AscenDance which we will be presenting today.

CONCERT #2 | 26 JUNE | Central Coast Grammar School

CELESTIAL EMU

Star Stories of the Dreaming – a film by Eleanor Gilbert

Steven Stanke – Celestial Emu (a multi-media symphony)

With members of Central Coast Philharmonia

Narrator – Tim Page

In collaboration with 5 Lands Walk

CONCERT #3 | 17 SEP | Central Coast Grammar School PRODIGIES

Lili Boulanger – A Spring Morning

Pablo Moncayo – Huapango

Plus four concerto soloists

CONCERT #4 | 26 NOV | Central Coast Grammar School

FANTASTIC DANCES

Rachmaninov – Symphonic Dances, mvt 1

Ravel – La Valse

Brahms – Hungarian Dance no. 5

Dvořák – Slavonic Dance 5 & 7

Tchaikovsky – Waltz from Eugene Onegin

Strauss – Thunder and Lightning Polka

Borodin – Polovtsian Dances

Copland – Hoedown

Marquez – Danzon no. 2

Piazzolla – Libertango

Khachaturian – Sabre Dance

Balsys – Habanera

Prokofiev – Dance of the Knights

Bizet – Can-Can

Violin 1

Yuko Hughes

(Acting Concertmaster)

Liz Acton

Chaylah Chivas

Elizabeth Blajet

Phoebe Haselden^

Inge Courtney-Haentjes

Oliver Lee

Violin 2

Sarah Fisher-Dobbin

Rachel Montalbano

Lauraine Fullbrook

Jude Hulson Calvert

Lewis Ma

Katie Dixon

Elissa McGregor

Eva Koslowski

Viola

Amba Mercuri

Rosemary Lovell

Helena Hatumale

Jill Robinson

Suzie Kim* ^

Cello

Natalie Lambert

Hilary Day

Charlie Donald

Robyn Wand

Mark Johns

Bass

Ian Esplin

Darryl Neve

Flute/Piccolo

Rosalie Bourne

Nicole Wyatt *

Mary Ellen Gillard

Oboe

Rachel Tolmie

Theo Brown

Clarinet

Helen Hamlin

Kevin Smith

Ryan Ambrose

Bassoon

Zola Baldwin

Joe Wolfe

Horn

Chris Hunt^

Melissa Shields

Dominic Tynan

Beth Beech

Trumpet

Michael Tierney

Graeme Reynolds

Jacinta Boyd

Trombone

Colin Burrows

Phillip Rutherford*

Riley Smith^

Tuba

Richard Bull

Timpani

Stephan Muehr

Percussion

David Wells

Jack Li

Nell Hudson

Piano/Celeste

Gerard Nicholls

Harp

Leigha Dark

Stage Manager

Melissa Urquhart

Front of House

Philip Stroud

Eddie Calvert

Artwork

Steven Stanke

* Central Coast Conservatorium teacher

~ Central Coast Grammar School student

^ Central Coast Grammar School tutor

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