Tower of Power? John Williams?
May 2024 Vol. 24 No.4
When you come to SOGO’s spring concert on May 19 at the Washington Center and see and hear what the Conservatory Orchestra is playing, you might think I’ve gone off the rails. Tower of Power AND John Williams in the same concert?! Am I crazy? Don’t answer that…
I have written extensively in previous newsletters about my philosophy of programming and how I go about crafting a SOGO season. As time goes on, however, I continue to find myself becoming less of a purist when it comes to genre. Symphonic music does not exist in a vacuum, completely separate from other styles. Today’s musicians need to be well-versed in a variety of genres, as they are just as likely to find themselves in a studio recording a film score or supplying backgrounds to a popular artist as they are to win a job with one of the nation’s great orchestras.
Over the course of the year, we have covered some core classical repertoire, including Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. We have explored some more contemporary pieces, such as Markowski’s Joyride and Moncayo’s Huapango. And this spring, we are pushing the envelope even further, with a medley of Tower of Power’s Greatest Hits – requiring the musicians to familiarize themselves with funk and swing rhythms – and John Williams’ The Olympic Spirit, which looks ahead to the Paris Games this summer.
John Williams is one of the greatest examples of a composer whose music borrows from many different styles and genres. He is of course best known for his iconic film scores, which employ the Wagnerian concept of leitmotifs assigned to various characters, but he has also written concertos for several of the world’s leading soloists, as well as many pieces for the Olympics. The Olympic Spirit was written for NBC’s coverage of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. It may not be the best-known of Williams’ Olympic pieces, but it is nonetheless strident and aspirational, and a fitting conclusion to the SOGO season.
As always, there is too much happening at the May concert to write about everything in detail. Our orchestras, the stage, and indeed the concert itself, are bursting at the seams! Highlights to look forward to include Nisqually Middle School orchestra director Jen Grady guest-conducting the Debut Orchestra (which is now larger than Conservatory!), Flight of the Bumblebee played by several trumpeters with the Academy Orchestra, soloists Sky Lin, Naomi Scott, Aidan O’Brien, and Cade McBride playing music by Gabriel Faure and Norman Leyden, and of course, our annual celebration of this year’s graduating seniors. Get your tickets now, and I’ll see you there!