Tim Burton fans can celebrate his creative partnership with Danny Elfman with the help of Pacific Symphony and Cal State Fullerton’s University Singers just in time for Valentine’s Day.
“Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton” runs Feb. 13 and 14 at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa for a two-hour, 15-minute concert featuring music from films like “Batman,” “Big Fish,” “Beetlejuice,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
“This concert presentation celebrates one of cinema’s most enduring creative partnerships, while bringing the music front and center as it is performed by the full orchestra of Pacific Symphony,” said Eileen Jeanette, Pacific Symphony senior vice president of Artistic Planning and Production.
“While Danny Elfman is not appearing in person, the concert focuses on his instantly recognizable scores, which are inseparable from the imaginative worlds created by Tim Burton. The program has been performed successfully around the world, and we felt it was finally time to bring it to Pacific Symphony audiences. With Hollywood being nearby, we know there are a lot of fans who already know and love this music.”
Part of the Pacific Symphony Pops Series, which is designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences, the concert also includes visual elements like film montages, sketches and storyboards drawn from Tim Burton’s original work.
“These visuals will marry beautifully with the music the orchestra plays, creating an atmosphere that enhances the storytelling,” Jeanette said.
The orchestra will be led by guest conductor Sarah Hicks, who specializes in film music and the film-in-concert genre. It will also feature violinist Sandy Cameron, a well-known interpreter of Elfman’s music. Elfman actually wrote his violin concerto, “Eleven Eleven,” for Cameron.
“Sarah Hicks is a remarkable conductor with deep experience in film music, and she brings incredible energy to the orchestra,” Jeanette said. “Sandy Cameron is one of the leading interpreters of Danny Elfman’s music and her violin solos add a haunting, expressive dimension to the program. We are also proud to feature the CSUF University Singers, whose voices add dramatic weight and emotional impact, along with Antonio Lin, a gifted young boy soprano from the All American Boys Chorus.”
Christopher W. Peterson, professor of music and director of Choral Music Education at Cal State Fullerton, said their department’s students have partnered with Pacific Symphony in the past. They have sung in their concert shows, including “Sweeney Todd” in concert and “Home Alone Live.”
“Our Cal State Fullerton students have been featured onstage as choristers and supernumeraries in past opera productions such as ‘Carmen,’ ‘La Bohemia’ and ‘La Traviata,’” Peterson said.
He said the University Singers will participate in every song at this concert.
“There are 15 songs [in] the concert, and the choir sings all or part of 15 of them,” he said. “We sometimes have words, though we often have neutral syllables like ‘oo’ and ‘ahh’ in thick chordal textures that add to the orchestral [and] musical effect. People who know Tim Burton films can certainly attest that the choir timbres play a big role in the musical effect of the plot underscoring. We find Danny Elfman’s scoring to be fun yet still challenging to sing.”
Peterson said that while Elfman’s music is not too difficult for the University Singers to perform — since they are made up of some of the most skilled choral musicians in the CSU Fullerton School of Music — the choir parts can be challenging at times because of the nature of movie music.
“The audience will see the movie above the musicians and as the excitement of the score weaves together with the plot, the music changes meter frequently, changes modes often, and has wide swings of dynamic and vocal ranges in almost every song,” he said. “For the choir, it can sometimes be like a musical rollercoaster ride rather than a quiet stroll in the park. They are enjoying the challenge and are excited to be singing the concert.”
Peterson said the singers are looking forward to the whole show, but they particularly like singing “Mars Attacks!” and “Batman Returns” because those are exciting and energetic songs.
“The song with the most text, ‘Corpse Bride,’ is also a favorite for the University Singers because it’s playful and fun,” he said.
Tickets for the Pacific Symphony’s performances of “Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton” can be purchased online at pacificsymphony.org.