Pacific Symphony • 15

Orchestral Score Composed & Performed by Stewart Copeland

Directed byFRED NIBLO

There will be one 20-minute intermission

CAST Ramon Novarro Ben-Hur Francis X. Bushman Messala May McAvoy Esther Betty Bronson Mary Claire McDowell Princess of Hur Kathleen Key Tirzah Carmel Myers Iras

With Special Thanks to Warner Brothers

RICHARD KAUFMAN • CONDUCTORSTEWART COPELAND • DRUMS AND PERCUSSION

pops seriesMAR. 18 & 19

The performance begins at 8 p.m.

SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTSRENÉE AND HENRY SEGERSTROM CONCERT HALL

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2015-16 POPS SERIES

Official Television Station

P A C I F I C S Y M P H O N Y P R O U D L Y R E C O G N I Z E S I T S O F F I C I A L P A R T N E R S

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Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

16 • Pacifi c Symphony

RICHARD meet the principal pops conductor

RICHARD KAUFMANHAL AND JEANETTE SEGERSTROMFAMILY FOUNDATION PRINCIPAL POPS CONDUCTOR CHAIR

R ichard Kaufman has devoted much of his musical life to conducting and supervising music for fi lm and television productions, as well as performing fi lm and classical music in concert halls and on recordings. The 2015-16 concert season marks Kaufman’s 25th

season as principal pops conductor of Pacifi c Symphony. He also holds the permanent title of pops conductor laureate with the Dallas Symphony, and soon begins his 10th season with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert series, “CSO at the Movies.” This past May, Kaufman made his conducting debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra, substituting for John Williams at the Annual Pops Film Night.

Kaufman regularly appears as a guest conductor with symphony orchestras throughout both the United States and around the world including Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Louis, London, Calgary, Edmonton, Liverpool, the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, Rotterdam and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In addition to conducting “traditional” concert presentations, Kaufman often leads performances of complete fi lm scores in concert, synchronizing the music to the actual fi lm as it is shown on the screen above the orchestra. These legendary fi lm titles include Singin’ in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, Psycho, Casablanca, The Bride of Frankenstein, Pirates of the Caribbean and various silent fi lms.

Kaufman received the 1993 Grammy Award in the category of Best Pop Instrumental Performance. In addition to his two recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded CDs with the Nuremberg Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Brandenburg Philharmonic in Berlin.

He has conducted for performers including John Denver, Andy Williams, Mary Martin, Nanette Fabray, Sir James Galway, Diana Krall, Chris Botti, The Pointer Sisters, The Beach Boys, Peter Paul and Mary, Robert Goulet, David Copperfi eld, The Righteous Brothers and Art Garfunkel.

As a violinist, Kaufman performed on numerous fi lm and television scores including Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saturday Night Fever and (in a moment of desperation) Animal House. He has recorded with artists including John Denver, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, The Carpenters and Ray Charles.

Kaufman joined the music department of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1984 as music coordinator, and for the next 18 years supervised music for MGM. He received two Emmy Award nominations, one for the animated series, The Pink Panther, in the category of Outstanding Music Direction and Composition, and another for Outstanding Original Song co-authored for the series, All Dogs Go to Heaven. For the MGM television series In the Heat of the Night, Kaufman composed songs with actor/producer Carroll O’Connor. He conducted the scores for fi lms including Guarding Tess and Jungle to Jungle. As a unique part of his career in fi lm, Kaufman has coached various actors in musical roles including Jack Nicholson, Dudley Moore and Tom Hanks.

Kaufman has served as music director and conductor for numerous musicals, including a national tour of Sweet Charity starring Juliet Prowse, the fi rst national tours of Company (for Hal Prince) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (for the New York Shakespeare Festival). He has conducted numerous musicals for the Los Angeles and San Francisco civic light operas (for one of these, he was nominated by the San Francisco Theater Critics for Outstanding Music Direction).

In 2012, Kaufman received the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from California State University, Northridge (CSUN). While a student at CSUN, he composed the University’s Alma Mater and Fight Song, and was the keynote speaker for the CSUN Honors Convocation Ceremony. He has appeared as a guest speaker at various universities including USC, University of Georgia and the California State Universities at Northridge and Fullerton. He is a member of the Music Advisory Board of the Young Musicians Foundation.

Born in Los Angeles, Kaufman began violin studies at age 7, played in the Peter Meremblum California Junior Symphony and was a member of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. He attended the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood in the fellowship program, and earned a B.A. in Music from California State University, Northridge. Kaufman lives in Southern California with his wife, Gayle, a former dancer in fi lm, television and on Broadway. His daughter, Whitney, is a graduate (with honors) from Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and for 2 ½ years was a member of the cast of the National Tour of Mamma Mia.

Kaufman is proud to be represented by Opus 3 Artists.

Pacifi c Symphony • 17

ABOUTFilmmakers are a strange breed, and none more so than editors. During the 20 years I spent working closely with them in post-production, they taught me a thing or two about cinematic storytelling: above all that pacing is crucial, and this is where my concert version will diverge most profoundly from the original cut. The full-length version of the fi lm is 143 minutes long. At two hours and 23 minutes therefore it’s best enjoyed at rare cinema screenings, although it still packs a punch on a fl at screen at home. But in a concert hall or at an outdoor festival, I believe this new version will be an accessible and exciting mix of story, fi lm and orchestral performance.

THE STORYLINE

J udah Ben-Hur is a wealthy Jew and boyhood friend of the powerful Roman commander, Messala. When an accident leads to Judah’s arrest, Messala makes sure he and his family are jailed

and separated from each other. Judah is consigned to the galley of the Roman Admiral Quintus Arrius. As he staggers in chains through the small town Nazareth, making his painful way to the galleys, he unknowingly encounters Jesus Christ, the carpenter’s son who off ers him water. When the galley is attacked and sunk by pirates, at risk of his own life Ben-Hur saves himself and the Admiral from drowning, and they are recovered by another ship. In gratitude for saving his life, Arrius decides to adopt Ben-Hur as a son. Over the years, the young man grows strong and becomes a victorious chariot racer many times over. Eventually these events lead to a climactic showdown with Messala in the iconic chariot race. However by the time Ben-Hur’s mother and Tirzah, his sister, are fi nally released from prison, they have contracted leprosy. Esther, the daughter of Simonides, the Hur family’s former majordomo, fi nds and persuades the two women to come with her to see Jesus Christ in the hope that he may cure them. Condemned to death and surrounded by the crowd, The Christ carries his cross toward Golgotha, the site of his crucifi xion. Pushing through the crowd, Ben-Hur shouts that two legions of men are coming to avenge Him. But a voice comes to Ben-Hur and tells him to put down his sword. The women kneel beside The Christ as he passes by, His hand reaches out and miraculously they are cured of their leprosy. At last the family is reunited. Outside of Jerusalem the legions that Ben-Hur has raised are told of The Christ’s death but instructed to put away their swords and instead pray for peace. Love conquers all. The fi lm ends with Ben-Hur, his mother and Tirzah standing against the backdrop of Calvary with the three crosses visible in the distance.

“Ben Hur is a picture that rises above spectacle, even though it is one. On the screen it isn’t the chariot race or the great battle scenes between the fl eet of Rome and the pirate galleys of Golthar. It is the tremendous heart throbs that one experiences leading to those scenes that make them great.” —Variety, 1925

M GM’s 1925 fi lm Ben-Hur: A Tale of The Christ is the most expensive silent fi lm ever made. Produced by Abraham L. Erlanger, Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Meyer and Florenz

Ziegfeld, and an uncredited Irving Thalberg, it was eventually directed by Fred Niblo at a cost of almost $4 million—some $200 million in 2016. With an enormous cast and crew, the fi lm possesses a visual scope that is breathtaking, hugely impressive even by today’s standards.

In 2009, composer and legendary rock musician Stewart Copeland was asked to provide the score for an arena spectacle based on the original book by General Lew Wallace. Acted in Latin and Aramaic with a traveling cast and crew of 400, it premiered at the O2 Arena in London and was performed throughout Europe.

Copeland was then commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival to deconstruct the classic 1925 black-and-white fi lm and re-orchestrate the recorded arena score for live orchestral concert performances. This is a project that for the fi rst time combines all of Copeland’s many talents in composition, orchestration, fi lm scoring, fi lm editing and his virtuoso talents as percussionist and drummer.

ABOUT THE WORK by Stewart Copeland

W hen the 2009 Ben-Hur Live arena production of the Wallace novel fi nished its run in 2011, I felt strongly that the score I had composed for this project deserved a life of

its own. My manager Derek Power had shown me Fred Niblo’s classic original version of this famous story and we were struck by both the freshness of the fi lm on the one hand and overwhelmed by its scale on the other. Watching those same scenes that I had scored for a diff erent medium, I couldn’t help but hear my music working with Ramon Novarro’s portrayal of Judah, Francis X Bushman’s Messala and Fred Niblo’s vigorous interpretation of General Wallace’s book.

ben-hur

18 • Pacifi c Symphony

ABOUT ben-hur

CREDITS

Ben-Hur, A Tale of The Christ, Symphonic Copy ©2014 Turner Entertainment Company, Inc./Warner Bros Theatre Ventures,

Inc. Composer, Editor: Stewart CopelandExecutive Producer: Derek PowerConductor: Richard KaufmanPost production supervisor for Warner Brothers: Cynthia Vrbancic Picture Scanning editor for Warner Brothers: Ann MartinAssistant/editor for Stewart Copeland: Adrienne LowRecordist: Jeff SeitzOrchestrations: Stewart Copeland, Peter Golub, Philip Klein, Penka

Kouneva, Ryan Beveridge, Arturo RodriguezScore Preparation: Jeremy BorumAll Music Composed by Stewart Copeland dba Palmyra Music

Copyright 2014Palmyra Music is Published and Administered by Associated Music

Ltd/Peggy Monastra Picture Scan: Motion Picture Imaging LtdWarner Bros Theatricals Legal: Nicole NagelWarner Bros Distribution Legal: Constance MinnettStewart Copeland Personal Management: The Derek Power CompanyStewart Copeland Concert Representation: Opus3 Artists/Earl

Blackburn Stewart Copeland Public Relations by Bucklesweet Media/Amanda

Sweet Commissioned by Virginia Arts Festival, Director: Robert CrossThe Producers gratefully acknowledge these contributions.

ABOUT STEWART COPELAND

S tewart Copeland has spent three decades in the forefront of contemporary music as a rock star, acclaimed fi lm score writer and composer in the disparate worlds of opera, ballet, world

music and chamber music. Recruiting Sting and Andy Summers in 1977, Copeland formed The Police, a rock band that became a defi ning force in rock music. They reunited 23 years later for a 14-month world tour, and its success was a testament to the enduring popularity of the band and its music.

Copeland spent 20 years as a successful fi lm and TV composer, working for the likes of Francis Ford Coppola on Rumblefi sh and Oliver Stone on Wall Street. He returned to his drum kit to form Animal Logic with Stanley Clarke and Oysterhead with Trey Anastasio and Les Claypool, meanwhile fi nding time to win the Archie David Cup with his polo team (on a horse). Copeland was commissioned to write a ballet for the San Francisco Ballet, and his fi rst opera, Holy Blood and the Crescent Moon, for the Cleveland Opera in 1989. In April 2011, he wrote a short opera based on the Edgar Allen Poe story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which premiered at the Royal Opera House in London and received its U.S. premiere with Long Beach Opera in 2013.

Recent commissions include his score for MGM’s silent fi lm classic, Ben-Hur, which premiered at the Virginia Arts Festival and was performed in 2014 with The Chicago Symphony. His new percussion concerto, Poltroons in Paradise, was recently performed by The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. In 2015 his new opera, The Invention of Morel, premiered at the Long Beach Opera. Awards include the keys to the city of Milan, The Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (France), fi ve Grammys and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Through it all, a sense of humor and appreciation for his utterly unique career has shone through as he has enjoyed working in a remarkable array of genres.

COMING SOON!

MARTIN SHORT

Friday & Saturday, April 15-16 • 8 p.m.renÉe anD henry seGerstrom concert hall

Richard Kaufman, conductor

It’s an unpredictable and undeniably fun night when multitalented and multifaceted comedy legend Martin Short joins Pacifi c Symphony for a hilarious evening of song, dance and laughter. The Emmy and Tony award-winning actor is best known for his appearances on Saturday Night Live and his scene-stealing roles in Father of the Bride and Three Amigos.

CHRIS BOTTI

Friday & Saturday, May 13-14 • 8 p.m.renÉe anD henry seGerstrom concert hall

Albert-George Schram, conductor

Back by popular demand, trumpeter extraordinaire Chris Botti returns to Orange County with a brand new show! A gifted instrumentalist, a talented composer and a charismatic performer, the former trumpeter for Sting eff ortlessly crosses the boundaries between pop and classical, jazz and rock.