Jacobs Live at the Movies will return this semester with “Disney's Frozen in Concert” performed by the Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra. Performances are scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 12 and 2 p.m. Sept. 13 at the IU Auditorium.
With around 100 members, the Philharmonic Orchestra is one of eight orchestras at IU and is Jacobs’ premier orchestra. They have performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Bastille Opera House in Paris. And this performance will be this year's orchestra's first concert together, as they just held auditions at the beginning of the semester.
The Philharmonic Orchestra does around three concerts a semester, with this being the first for the fall and the first for this specific group.
“They already have full mastery of their instrument,” Conductor Ernest Richardson said. “They’re already really listening and really carefully working as a team to pull this concert off.”
Richardson is the resident conductor for the Omaha Symphony and is guest conducting this performance for the Philharmonic Orchestra, which he said he’s never worked with before.
Technology used for performing live movie scores has only grown in the last 15 years, Richardson said. He said that the Omaha Symphony was at the forefront of performing these, and he has conducted many live scores. Just last year he conducted “Frozen” in Omaha, Nebraska.
“Frozen is a great story,” Richardson said. “It’s a terrific score, so I just don’t get tired of it at all.”
Richardson said he’s probably seen “Frozen” hundreds of times, but for him, it’s usually just in small clips during rehearsals and on his narrow screen while conducting. Instead of watching the film on the big screen, where audience members will see the movie, Richardson has a small screen in front of him with the movie playing that includes many different visual cues for him to monitor.
Some of these cues include streamers, which are colored lines across the screen that help visualize when things need to happen. Punches are another visual cue that show when something needs to happen through a flash of light on the screen. There are also clicks that the conductor will hear to help him stay on beat with the film.
“What you want the orchestra to do is to not worry about the movie at all, I want them to play as musically as they can, based upon what they see in front of them,” Richardson said. “It's really exciting when the score and the movie are in perfect alignment.”
While Richardson has cues on his screen and in his ear, he is the cue for the musicians. The orchestra won’t have earpieces in to hear the clicks, so they must look at their sheet music, while also constantly looking up at Richardson for cues to make sure they are on time with the movie.
Jasmine Dickson, a second-year master’s student in trumpet performance, said that it’s important for the musicians to be in sync with the movie because some visual moments also need to happen in the music at the same time.
“We’re not the same musicians that recorded it, but the idea is to replicate that,” Dickson said.
During the show, they will perform all the songs from the film, like “Let It Go” or “For the First time in Forever,” but they will also play background music that happens between scenes and sound effects. Dickson said her favorite extra effect the orchestra does is the blinks the trolls do in “Fixer Upper.”
Dickson said that performing live movie scores is becoming more relevant for musicians because of the increased popularity with audiences. IU is one of the few universities to be doing this and for students like Dickson or Charles Kritsch, a senior studying viola performance, it is their first chance to get to perform something like this.
“It’s definitely a different atmosphere than if it were to be preparing Brahms or Beethoven or things like that.” Kritsch said. “That’s kind of what we go to school for, is really these monumental composers that we kind of look up to, but these kinds of things are very real world.”
