Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

Alongside an August 17 screening of the Disney and Pixar film Up at the Ravinia Festival, Parnther will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a live performance of Michael Giacchino’s Oscar-honored score. The presenta- tion marks the 15th anniversary of the box-office hit, which was nominated for five Academy Awards, also winning Best Animated Feature. The movie recounts the story of Carl Fredericksen (voiced by actor Ed Asner) who, in his late 70s, embarks on a fantastical flight to South America by attaching thousands of balloons to his house. A neighborhood boy named Russell becomes an accidental stow- away and eventually a partner in what becomes a grand, sprawling adventure. The event holds special significance for Parnther, not only because it will rep- resent his CSO and Ravinia debuts but also because Up was the first movie he worked on as a studio musician after ar- riving in Los Angeles nearly 20 years ago. “I have worked with Michael Giacchino as his bassoonist and contrabassoonist for many years now, and this particular film takes me back to the very beginning as a Hollywood studio musician. So, I am really looking forward to that.” No one auditions for what is known as the Hollywood Studio Symphony, a freelance orchestra with an ever-chang- ing roster depending on the cinematic recording project. Instead, musicians are recommended for the ensemble. “Then, once a section and a composer and con- tractor are comfortable with you, then “ I want to make sure that I keep that door open for people who look just like me. ” Anthony Parnther leads the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra in its Carnegie Hall hall debut in 2022, featuring Jon Batiste as soloist in the premiere of his concerto I Can . you begin to develop more relationships and work on more projects,” he said. “Getting into the room is one thing, but staying in it for 20 years is a different feat all in itself.” Parnther has worked on more than 1,000 film, television and video-game soundtracks—a few hundred as a conductor and the rest as a bassoonist. “It’s been a long list of really interesting projects,” he said. As a conductor, he got his start on small independent films and then began collaborating on video games, including the hugely popular League of Legends , which was released in 2009. He later progressed to television and studio films, including leading last- year’s Oscar-winning score for Oppen- heimer . “It was a very gradual thing over a period of 10 years, working my way up the tentpole, so to speak,” he said. In the Star Wars realm, he performed as a musician on the soundtracks of sev- enth, eighth, and ninth films in the main canon, as well as on the “stories” Rogue One (2016) and Solo (2018). As a conduc- tor, he has led the music for three seasons of the Star Wars -based television series The Mandalorian and the mini-series The Book of Boba Fett . “It’s been a long and fruitful journey with all those,” he said. In addition to his studio work, Parn- ther often conducts live performances of scores, as he will at Ravinia. For such presentations, he typically chooses films on which he worked as a musician or conductor, or ones where he has had a long relationship with the composer. The latter will be the case September 26–28 when he marks the 50th anniversary of Jaws during three performances with the New York Philharmonic. “I may have a different perception of how some of these John Williams movies and scores go, which may be unusual for most con- ductors, because most conductors have not played under his baton,” he said. At the same time, Parnther conducts a wide range of classical music with the San Bernadino Symphony and Los Angeles’s Southeast Symphony Orchestra, where he has been Music Director since 2019 and 2009, respectively. He also frequently guest conducts, including an appearance last year with the Atlanta Symphony and upcoming dates with the Charlotte and Virginia Symphonies. He has also taken over as Artistic Director of the just-chris- tened Civic Orchestra of Los Angeles, a pre-professional training orchestra that will function much like the venerable Civic Orchestra of Chicago. And if all that wasn’t enough, Parn- ther works with a range of performers in the pop-music realm. He is conducting a series of concerts this summer and RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 18, 2024 16 PREVIOUSPAGE:DARIOACOSTA THISPAGE:CHRISLEE