Since 2012, the UTEP Symphony Orchestra has dedicated their last concert of the season to classical music featured in films and original scores written for the movies. On May 4, they will be performing the “Sounds of Cinema” at UTEP’s Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m.
With the UTEP Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Lowell E. Graham, and a discussion about music in movies given by event host Charles Leinberger, the audience will have the opportunity to enjoy a great evening full of music.
“This is a great way to end the semester on a high note (and I don’t mean it pitch wise) but with something really, really fun. This is one of the greatest collaborations in concerts that we do at the end of each academic year,” Graham said. “This is about sharing with the audience music that they know, music that they’ve heard and music that they want to know and the involvement of how was the music used in the film.”
According to Leinberger, the idea behind this concert is to educate the audience to be more engaged with film and music rather than just be a passive listener attending to simply be entertained.
“In a movie there is always music, and if you don’t notice it, the composer did a good job,” Leinberger said. “When you go to a movie you have to pay attention to everything you hear because in film half of it is visual and half of it is what you hear.”
This year, the UTEP orchestra will be performing two original scores from two recently acclaimed films.
“Starting at 7 p.m., I will be giving a pre-concert talk called ‘Music, what music?’ to introduce the audience to some of the terminology used throughout the evening when we talk about film music,” Leinberger said. “We always feature two original scores written for a movie, and this year two of them are Hans Zimmer’s music for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest,’ and John Williams’ Academy Award -nominated music for ‘Star Wars-Episode 7: The Force Awakens.’”
Graham said he uses music pieces he believes in and is passionate about in order to give the orchestra and audience a great experience.
“I’ve been playing in this orchestra for 14 semesters, this is our sixth year doing the movie music concert and is a great way to end of the semester,” said graduate cello student Nathan Black. “This concert is a great introduction for the people who aren’t super comfortable attending classical music concerts, but when they come see the symphony orchestra, they can have a great time no matter what.”
With the “Sounds of Cinema” being the last concert the UTEP Symphony Orchestra will be offering, don’t forget to attend this event and “May the 4th be with you.”
Tickets Prices are $5 for adults, $3 for students or Military. Free for UTEP faculty, students and staff.
