‘Harry Potter,’ Hanson part of Tulsa Symphony 2018-2019 season

By | March 22, 2018

Tulsa World

The second “Harry Potter” film will get the “In Concert” treatment, and Tulsa’s Hanson will make its local orchestral debut as part of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-2019 season.

The season will also feature another film with live orchestral accompaniment, the comedy “Home Alone,” as well as a rare performance of Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem.”

Current subscribers may renew their season tickets beginning April 2, with new season ticket sales beginning April 30. Tickets for individual concerts will go on sale in July.

The season begins Sept. 7 with the traditional “Symphony in the Park,” a free concert event held on the Guthrie Green in the Tulsa Arts District conducted by Ron Spigelman.

Cellist Lynn Harrell will be the guest artist for the orchestra’s Opening Night Gala Concert on Oct. 6. Harrell will be the soloist for the Cello Concerto in B Minor by Dvorak, part of a program led by principal guest conductor Daniel Hege.

James Bagwell, former music director of Light Opera Oklahoma and a frequent guest conductor with the Tulsa Symphony, will return Nov. 11 to lead the orchestra and the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus in Britten’s “War Requiem,” considered the composer’s choral masterpiece, combining the Latin Mass with poems by Wilfred Owens, a writer killed during the final days of World War I.

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” will be accompanied by a live performance of the John Williams score for two performances Nov. 17-18.

Williams’ music was also featured in the comedy “Home Alone,” about a young boy accidentally left behind by his family during Christmas and his efforts to fend off a couple of bumbling burglars. The film with live accompaniment will be presented Dec. 1.

Hege will return to the podium Jan. 5 to lead the orchestra in a program of song and dance, featuring selections from Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” and Prokofiev’s score to the ballet “Romeo and Juliet.”

The Feb. 2 concert will feature guest conductor Gerhardt Zimmermann overseeing the performance of the Symphony No. 7 by Shostakovich, also known as the “Leningrad,” as it was written during the siege of that city during World War II and paints a bleak musical picture of the horrors of war.

Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, was the final piece he composed before his death in 1943, so it is fitting this will be the cornerstone of the symphony’s final Classics concert of the season April 13, 2019.

The season concludes May 17, 2019, with “Hanson String Theory,” an evening that will feature new and retrospective songs by the band, arranged by David Campbell.

The project marks a new direction for the band, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a sold-out world tour.

“Hanson String Theory” will debut Aug. 2, performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, followed by an Aug. 4 concert by the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap.

The Tulsa Symphony will also present four Fridays in the Loft chamber music concerts, featuring TSO musicians in an informal setting, complete with conversation with the musicians, wine and hors d’oeuvres.

Dates for the Fridays in the Loft series are Sept. 21; Jan. 18, 2019; March 15, 2019; and April 26, 2019.

For more information: 918-584-3645, tulsasymphony.org.

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