Just launched the website for A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project. The brainchild of composer Christopher Lennertz, the idea was to take 25 film composers and create a symphonic work based on a traditional Haitian melody. Proceeds from sales of the resulting album will be sent to the Hands Together charity to benefit Haitian earthquake victims. I built the site with a WordPress framework, and heavily modified a pre-existing template. The biggest challenge on the site was to connect …
Symphonic Concert of Film Music
The concert – as most things in Ubeda – started late, around 9:40pm. Giacchino kicked things off (literally) by giving the mayor of the city a soccer ball autographed by all the composers, and then tossing two more into the crowd to the fans. He played music from The Family Stone, Lost, Medal of Honor, and Up. He was followed by Lennertz, who played music from Medal of Honor: European Assault, The Comebacks, Warhammer, and Meet the Spartans. Spanish composer/conductor …
Orchestra Rehearsal and Lunch
I slept in a bit, and then after a late breakfast headed to the Hospital to check out the symphony rehearsal for the evening’s concert. Watching Grusin play On Golden Pond was great, as well as the Spartacus suite. There were a few tense moments, like when the percussionist didn’t have the right sheet music during Randy Edelman’s segment, and apparently the musician’s union representatives were very unhappy about the lack of breaks. But still, everyone got a shot at …
Late Night Ice Cream and Drinks
Friday night’s festivities continued in the early morning, while the fans went on a scavenger hunt. This was supposed to be followed up at 2:30am by the drinks and chocolate pastries down by the city wall overlooking the olive groves, which I missed out on three years ago, and had heard how great they were. So to kill the time, a bunch of us – including Grusin and Lennertz – headed out to find some food (since we hadn’t had …
Recital of Film and Non-Film Music
The evening’s concert was different than one I had seen before in Ubeda three years ago. Back then, it was a very long symphonic concert all on one night; this time they had a smaller “recital” where the guest artists would perform their own music on stage, themselves, or backed with a small group. Vocalist/pianist Lisbeth Scott sang two Alex North songs, and then a song from Munich, which she provided vocals on in the original score. Randy Edelman played …
Paella Lunch and Choir Practice
After the panels, I was getting hungry, and so I headed to lunch with Lennertz and a bunch of folks from his entourage, and some others. It was held at a restaurant that seemed to specialize in steak and paella, but it wasn’t quite clear. Dave Grusin and his group was already there, finishing up their meal, and we got started with some salad, bread with excellent local olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and some gazpacho. The paella was a …
Friday Morning Panels
The morning’s first panel was Michael Giacchino’s; after a detailed introduction, he basically just opened up the floor to questions – and a few of his upcoming projects were briefly discussed, most notably two of the live-action films that are to be helmed by Pixar directors: Mission: Impossible 4 (Brad Bird) and John Carter of Mars (Andrew Stanton). Very cool! To demonstrate the value of music in “Lost”, Giacchino live-scored on piano, where he had two guests from the audience …