“Imagine if you will: Arts supporters, dressed to the nines, gathered for a benefit in a grand old movie palace, listening to a chamber orchestra—and watching Disney cartoons,” writes Tim Greiving in Friday’s (6/3) Los Angeles Times. “Last year, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra broke from a 25-year tradition of playing live accompaniment to old silent films for its annual fundraiser and instead dove into the Disney vault. The rechristened ‘LACO @ the Movies’ … sold out…. This year the ensemble will perform seven of Disney’s ‘Silly Symphony’ shorts … at downtown L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre—built in 1926 … and equipped with a Wurlitzer organ that will be dusted off for the occasion. ‘I think this is one of the most on-brand things we do, because the roots of LACO are in the L.A. studio scene,’ said Scott Harrison, the organization’s new executive director…. Today, more than 85% of its 40 members are regulars on [Hollywood’s] scoring stages around town…. ‘The composers that worked for Disney in those days were at the top of their game … on the same level as any of the great composers who were doing feature films,’ said Mark Watters, who will conduct the LACO show.”
Posted June 3, 2016
