"It's a long, boring show," composer Bill Conti said repeatedly about the Academy Awards. Bill Conti's Academy Awards, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's 2014-15 Acxiom Pops Live Series opener Saturday, was neither.
Conti directed the orchestra through highlights of his long composing career, starting with the fanfare from Rocky, the film score that launched his career in 1976.
Between selections, Conti, 67, stepped down from the podium to offer background about his composition and glimpses into the moviemaking business. Although he'd earned a number of degrees by then, "my wife felt that I majored in hunger and poverty until that Rocky movie came out," he joked.
The fast-paced evening included a medley of TV themes -- the 1988 Olympics, Falcon Crest, Dynasty and Cagney & Lacey, no doubt invoking the opening scenes from those shows for folks who watched them.
Concertmaster Andrew Irvin and violinist Trisha McGovern stepped to the front for a battle-of-the-sexes duel of themes from the film Unfaithfully Yours. For "Salute to the Cinema," the piece that ended the first half of the evening, Conti arranged the themes from 19 Hollywood blockbusters, synchronized to film clips playing on screens above the orchestra.
Near the end, Conti talked about music's ability to evoke feelings.
"I conjure an emotion," he said. "I can write what I feel about that, and I hope in our humanity, you get it. It's just another language."
But his language is mere marks on a page, he said, as he asked the musicians to stand.
"The ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra put the soul into those lifeless notes," he said.
The lobby of the Connor Performing Arts Center at Pulaski Academy was spiffed up for the occasion, with balloons and replicas of an Oscar for selfie-taking purposes. In a concession to the musical fare, the concession stand offered popcorn. The orchestra will use the school's auditorium at 12701 Hinson Road while Robinson Center is renovated.
The program will be repeated today at 3 p.m. Tickets are $19-$58, $10 for students and active-duty military; K-12 students get into the matinee free with the purchase of an adult ticket. More information is available from (501) 666-1761 or online at ArkansasSymphony.org.
Metro on 10/05/2014