Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi is regarded as one of the world’s greatest anime film composers, known for his work with Studio Ghibli. In contrast, German film score composer Hans Zimmer is known for creating the music for films like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, and 12 Years a Slave. His simplistic themes are known to evoke our most basic human emotions. French composer Georges Hüe is not as widely recognized as his other French contemporaries, but his works garnered the admiration of several famous colleagues, including Debussy and Fauré. His Fantaisie for Flute and Orchestra features our 2022 Concerto Competition winner, Elizabeth Hebing. Johann Sebastian Bach is arguably one of the most famous composers in history. His iconic Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is rumored to have been something he improvised, and centuries later gained notoriety as a featured work in Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia. Our program concludes with Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King. Written in 1875, the work has been featured in films like Rat Race, Inspector Gadget, and numerous holiday trailers. This classic, playful tune invokes feelings whimsy and rather dark, unseen things that may or may not be desired.

The music of Bridgerton is one of the most important elements in helping create a world envisioned by Shonda Rhimes. The music is specifically crafted to help tell the Bridgerton story. That sweeping, hopeful violin over strokes of thumping cello. That music — like all good theme songs — immediately brings you into another world. And in this case, it’s the world of the hit Netflix series, where young women stand up for themselves and learn self-love, where young men learn how to be more vulnerable and compassionate, and where fierce horseback riding at dawn can cure most ailments.

This unique performance features music from the original soundtrack performed by local professional musicians and top young artists from the YAO.

Inspired by love, passion, and betrayal, this performance begins with Carlos Gardel’s Por Una Cabeza, the hit song from the movie Scent of a Woman. Our featured guest artist, Daniel Hass, performs the highly recognizable The Swan from Carnival of the Animals, in addition to Popper’s virtuosic work, Concert Polonaise. The first half closes with a medley from the 1988 classic Cinema Paradiso, and the well known “diamond song” Palladio featured in De Beers commercials. Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet is one of the finest ballet scores of all time, but that was not the general consensus at the outset. How puzzling it is to be reminded that the dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet, preparing for a Russian premiere that would be repeatedly delayed, complained bitterly about Prokofiev’s score, dismissing it as “undanceable!” Frustrated with its reception, in 1936 Prokofiev put together two concert suites featuring music from the ballet. Yunior Lopez has assembled an original sequence that draws on material from the suites. They flow in an order selected by Maestro Lopez for its musical logic, rather than for how they fall in the complete ballet.