March 28, 2024

Rolling Out the Red Carpet For The Hollywood Concert Orchestra

Feb. 12, 2016

If you’re looking forward to the upcoming 88th “Academy Awards” on Feb. 28 (especially to see who will end up with the “Best Song” award), then the City Opera House has a performance you shouldn’t miss. The Hollywood Concert Orchestra is heading to Traverse City to bring the best of movie music to the Opera House stage, with flourishes and fanfare highlighting everything from animation to drama.

POP PERFECTION

Leonid Fleishaker has been the orchestra’s agent and producer for the last 15 years, working with the ensemble in both the U.S. and East Asia. The orchestra itself, founded in 1999, is considered one of the premier pops ensembles in the world. The orchestra’s founders, John and Judith Giattino, composed their own arrangements, giving the musicians an extensive backlog of selections to choose from for each performance. John Giattino had a previous career as a producer, working with such big names as Henry Mancini, Arthur Fielder and Percy Faith.

MOVIE MUSIC

“By doing similar tours in other countries, the orchestra has alternated many different movie scores from one project to the next,” explained Fleishaker. “They now have over 50 different scores of movie music in their library.”

During the last decade, the orchestra has performed dozens of shows, playing music from the golden age of Hollywood to the present.

“We try to feature some of the most popular and famous music scores, so the audience can recognize the music from the very opening of each selection,” Fleishaker said.

SOMETHING NEW

Fleishaker has worked with many of the world’s best pops orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Pops, the Mantovani Orchestra and the New York Pops.

“What makes a great pops orchestra is its musical arrangements,” he said. “The Hollywood Photos Concert by Michael Orchestra Poehlman has Photography that huge library of movie scores, as well as Broadway,

Christmas and other genres. This is an important fact for producers, as then I am never stuck on a certain repertoire; we always have new material to work with and something new to offer to each audience.”

BOND TO SPIDERMAN

The 2015–2016 season theme is “Music That Made the Movies”. The program setlist for their Traverse City performance is exhaustive: music from Superman, Schindler’s List, The Incredibles, Chicago (the movie), Titanic, Spiderman, Forrest Gump, The Phantom of the Opera, complete with soloists, James Bond, West Side Story and Stage Coach (in tribute to John Wayne.)

“People like good arrangements, as well as good performances,” Fleishaker said. “And the Hollywood Concert Orchestra stands for quality; they have become a brand name in our industry.”

The Hollywood Concert Orchestra will perform at the City Opera House in Traverse City on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 7:30pm. For tickets and more information, visit cityoperahouse. org or call the box office at (231) 941-8082.


“Best Song” Winners at The Oscars*

2015: “Glory” from Selma

2014: “Let It Go” from Frozen

2013: “Skyfall” from Skyfall (James Bond)

2012: “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets

2011: “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3

2010: “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart

2009: “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire

2008: “Falling Slowly” from Once

2007: “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth

2006: “It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp” from Hustle and Flow

*Oscars are awarded for films released in the previous year

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