NJTV broadcasts Casablanca video feature

NJTV was on the scene when the NJSO performed the d“Casablanca” score live as the film screened at NJPAC on Saturday, February 9. The station aired a video feature on NJ Today and posted it online. Madeline Orton writes:

Hundreds of audience members poured into New Jersey Performing Arts Center to see a classic romantic film as they’ve never seen it before — accompanied by a live orchestra.

“This is the first time we’re showing an entire film accompanied by the orchestra,” said Interim President & CEO of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Susan Stucker. “On our Pops Series next year we’re going to be doing Cirque de la Symphonie with acrobats performing in and around the orchestra, and we’re also presenting a tribute to the Beatles.”

“I think this is a great way to introduce new audiences to the sound — the thrilling sound — of a live orchestra,” said Guest Conductor of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Constantine Kitsopoulos.

Nationwide, symphonies are contending with declining attendance and groups like New Jersey Symphony Orchestra are looking to diversify the kinds of performances they present.

“We try to be very engaging with our audiences, we talk about raising the invisible curtain so that we’re more approachable,” Stucker said.

Symphonies are finding new ways to build audiences for orchestral music and NJSO hopes that programming like “Casablanca” will do just that.

“To study for this, I actually checked out ‘Casablanca’ and I went through with the music and I was astonished that you actually can’t hear a lot of the orchestration in the actual movie, so I think the audience will discover some new pieces of music in the movie,” said Associate Concert Master of New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Brennan Sweet.

“The score is by Max Steiner, and Max Steiner — who also wrote and scored ‘Gone with the Wind’ — was actually a composition student of Gustav Mahler,” Kitsopoulos said.

Watch the feature and read the full article at njtvonline.org.