Shippensburg University’s Community Orchestra performed “A Night at the Movies” on Friday night at Luhrs, conducted by the Director of Orchestra and String Ensemble Ryan Kozak. They played soundtracks from popular movies like “Star Wars,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Lord of the Rings.”
The night started off with the theme music from “Star Wars,” the classical set of scores that most are familiar with. Kozak stated that it felt most appropriate to start the night off with “Star Wars” before they took a trip to “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
Kozak has been playing the violin since the age of 4 and has played with ensembles from all over the United States, Bulgaria and Hungary. He has explored various genres of music from musicals, opera, etc.
During “Raiders of the Lost Ark” audience members could be seen with their phones out to record.
The orchestra’s Vice President Officer Johanna Baker said: “I most enjoyed the arrangement of Indiana Jones. I grew up watching these movies and it was so fun getting to play their iconic themes.”
Baker has been playing the Viola for 13 years, and after each performance, she enjoys celebrating with some ice cream.
“Phantom of the Opera” had more drums incorporated compared to the others. The music was suspenseful, and then it transitioned beautifully into soft tones with violins. A 15-minute intermission split up both halves of the show.
Editor-in-Chief of The Slate Jayden Pohlman has been playing the violin for 11 years and joined the Orchestra her junior year. Pohlman recalled that her favorite song to perform was Pirates of the Caribbean.
“I played a few arrangements in high school, and it was very nostalgic to play again,” said Pohlman.
Kozak took the orchestra personnel’s votes into consideration when choosing which scores to conduct for “A Night At the Movies.”
“Typically, the orchestra director will select the music, but a few members of the orchestra, along with myself, suggested that we would like to play movie scores,” Pohlman said. “Our director kindly took our feedback and selected some of our favorite scores along with his own.”
“A personal favorite of mine growing up was Lord of the Rings, the film score is really enthralling,” Kozak mentioned before conducting the Orchestra to jaw dropping performance of “Lord of the Rings.”
Kozak left stage briefly after scores from “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings” and came back out with a red lightsaber – earning laughter from the audience – to conclude the show with “The Imperial March [Darth Vader’s Theme].”
The crowd gave the Orchestra a well-deserved standing ovation in the end.
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