The FullScore Chamber Orchestra is starting out its 2016-17 season with a bang — literally. The group will perform its Sept. 4 concert at the Zion band shell featuring music from movies and Broadway, followed by fireworks.
Concert attendees should bring lawn chairs or blankets to the concert, which is sponsored by Zion Jubilee Days. The concert will feature guest singer Clare McLaughlin, said Ron Arden, the orchestra’s director.
McLaughlin, who just graduated from Barrington High School, will be attending Northwestern University as a musical theater major this fall, Arden said. “This is a girl who’s only 18 and she sings like a Broadway star. She’s an amazing talent.”
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McLaughlin will sing with the orchestra when it performs medleys from famous Broadway shows including “Carousel,” “Funny Girl” and “Gypsy,” he said.
For the movie lovers, the orchestra will perform an arrangement of “Star Trek” through the years. “You’ll hear some music that is iconic and very familiar from those movies,” Arden said.
It’s arranged by Calvin Custer, a well-known professional composer, Arden said. “His arrangements tend to be extremely challenging and wonderful, and pretty close to the original music.”
Also planned is a suite from “Harry Potter,” he said, as well as a suite with music from older Hollywood movies written by Michel Legrand, who Arden deemed “the great-great-grandfather of people like John Williams,” composer of music from “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones” and others.
“It’s music everybody recognizes,” he said. “It’s gorgeous stuff.”
Some of the pieces include, “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” and “The Windmills of Your Mind.”
Other selections will salute Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote music to “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music.”
“It’s going to be amazing,” Arden said, adding “people are certainly welcome to sing along.”
The FullScore Chamber Orchestra typically starts its season with a free outdoor concert Labor Day weekend, Arden said.
The group rehearses in Zion and has several ticketed concerts at the Village Church in Gurnee, including a Dec. 18 Christmas special and another Feb. 18 featuring timeless classics.
A special all-day children’s concert will be held Oct. 3 in Zion and Gurnee.
Founder of the FullScore Chamber Orchestra, Arden is a professional violist, singer, actor and conductor and has performed with the Omaha Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, Houston Bach Society and Houston Grand Opera. He has a doctoral degree from University of Houston in voice and viola.
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
FullScore Chamber Orchestra: Broadway & Hollywood Blockbusters
When: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4
Where: Zion Band Shell, 2400 Dowie Memorial Drive, Zion
Tickets: Free
Information: www.fullscore.org
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