ASO re-opens Festival Theatre with blockbuster film music of John Williams

The newly opened Festival Theatre at Adelaide Festival Centre will resonate to the world’s favourite movie music as the ASO presents John Williams at 90 on 11 and 12 February.

Celebrating the world’s most celebrated film composer John Williams on his 90th birthday, Nicholas Buc will host and conduct a concert featuring the composer’s most memorable scores and favourite cinematic hits.

Winner of five Academy Awards and voted the ‘most popular living composer’, John Williams has composer more than 100 film scores. This thrilling program will feature a selection of epic soundtracks and blockbuster movie themes including Jaws, Jurassic Park, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Superman, Star Wars, Harry Potter and more.

Steven Spielberg, director of Jaws, E.T. and the Indiana Jones films:

Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly. Nor do brooms in Quidditch matches. Nor do men in red capes. There is no Force. Dinosaurs do not walk the earth. We do not wonder. We do not weep. We do not believe. John, you take our films, many of them about our most impossible dreams, and you make them real and everlasting for billions of people.

ASO, Managing Director, Vincent Ciccarello:

He was delighted that the ASO would mark the official re-opening of the Festival Theatre with such a spectacular program.

Is there any living composer better known or whose music is more loved than John Williams?

If there is, I can’t think of one. What better to way to celebrate the re-opening of the Festival Theatre than with a sonic celebration of John Williams’s 90th birthday featuring all his most popular and iconic film music.

John Williams’ career spans from the early 1960s to present day and has made him one of the most successful film composers in Hollywood history. His music is not only admired by directors and cinema audiences, but also by professional classical musicians who have brought his musical scores to life.

Concert host and conductor Nicholas Buc:

John Williams is a truly masterful musician

His music is able to channel something of the great Romantic and early twentieth-century composers in a way that doesn’t alienate an audience that might only be very casual appreciators of classical music.

Beneath that accessibility is some seriously impressive technique. He’s an incredible orchestrator. He’s able to craft earworm melodies and weave them into the fabric of the music in all kinds of ingenious ways.

There’s an incredible amount of colour and variety and inventiveness that really makes it a joy to listen tox. And it’s also a joy to play. Musicians love playing Williams, because it’s so well-conceived; it sits well, it’s idiomatic

It’s just bloody well-written music. And you don’t always find that in film scores.

ASO, Violin Janet Anderson:

John Williams’ scores encapsulate cinematic magic. Through his music he transports us to far off lands, fills us with hope and wonderment and makes us believe in magic.

Two of my favourite themes come from Jurassic Park and Harry Potter. The grandness and wonder of Jurassic Park and the pure magic of Harry Potter.

ASO, Principal Cor Anglais Peter Duggan:

Similarly, the score to Raiders of the Lost Ark is cowboyesque. It’s triumphant theme heralded by trumpets automatically transports us to a place of action and adventure, with danger and romance following close behind. When I grow up I hope to be just like Indiana Jones and I’m hoping that will happen soon as I’m not getting any younger. I think we can all identify with the character. Indiana is full of adventure, courage and optimism with a bit of romanticism thrown in too. And all the while he’s trying to make the world a better place by protecting it’s treasures. We could all do with a few Indian as now and then.

Adelaide Festival Centre, CEO & Artistic Director, Douglas Gautier AM:

We cannot think of a better way to celebrate the reopening of Adelaide Festival Centre’s Festival Theatre next year than with this grand concert by ASO featuring iconic music by the legendary John Williams. We cannot wait to showcase the Festival Theatre upgrade to audiences at what is sure to be a star-studded weekend.

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Season Details

Venue: Festival Theatre
Date:11 – 12 Feb 2022

For more information click HERE