Hooray for Hollywood: The Sequel

PISZCZEK Nomads WORLD PREMIERE
WILT Imagined Adventures: Autobonn
ROTA The Godfather
WAXMAN Tristan and Isolde: Fantasie (for violin and orchestra)
SILVESTRI Forrest Gump
WILLIAMS The Witches of Eastwick
ELFMAN Nightmare Before Christmas Suite
BROUGHTON Miracle on 34th Street
MORRICONE Cinema Paradiso
HISAISHI Princess Mononoke
ANDERSON Sleigh Ride
ANDERSON Christmas Festival

Back by popular demand, this tribute to Hollywood and the music that makes it special returns with a sequel! Brilliantly edited film clips on the big screen will complement some of the most famous scores written for the movies and performed with panache by your Space Coast Symphony Orchestra. Whether laughing, crying, loving, fighting or riding off into the sunset, the greatest music and memories from Hollywood's Silver Screen are included in this special tribute.

You'll hear selections from The Witches of Eastwick, Forrest Gump, The Godfather, Princess Mononoke and more. Violinist Evgeny Komarnitskiy will light up the stage with Franz Waxman's Tristan und Isolde: Fantasie, a virtuosic piece based on Wagner's opera, which Waxman adapted for the 1947 film Humoresque. The work features many of the opera's famous musical themes and motives, interweaving key moments like the love potion scene, the lovers' nocturnal tryst, and the final Liebestod into a cohesive, emotionally rich, and orchestrally colorful showpiece for the violin. Komarnitskiy will also perform Ennio Morricone's gorgeous theme from Cinema Paradiso. Also on this program are two works by Florida composers near and dear to the SCSO, Mark Piszczek and Kevin Wilt. Wilt's Imagined Adventures: Autobonn is a about the dream of taking off in a fast sports car, ramping up the energy with each gearshift. The SCSO will present the World Premiere of Mark Piszczek's Nomads, a cinematic work akin to the scores of the golden age of Hollywood. The program will be rounded out with a couple Christmas film scores that will put you in the holiday spirit! This is a concert to bring the whole family together and make your holidays truly special.

Mark Piszczek (b. 1957) is a native of central Florida where his parents worked in the fledgling space program. A professional performer on both oboe and saxophone, Piszczek has a deep background in both jazz and classical music. He has led his own groups and worked as a studio musician for over thirty years. Piszczek's father was a devout fan of classical music and it played daily on the family phonograph. This early exposure to concert music and the presence of highly competent music teachers, instilled a love of music that later turned into a lifelong passion. The composer cites the music of Karel Husa, Bela Bartok, Hindemith, Miles Davis, Chick Corea and Ralph Towner as key influences in his early musical development.  Piszczek studied oboe at the University of South Florida and The University of Wisconsin, Platteville. After years of performing and recording professionally as a jazz artist, he decided to return to his classical roots and received a master's degree in composition at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, where he studied with composers, Elliott Schwartz and Dan Sonenberg.  He has written hundreds of jazz compositions, a flute sonata, two woodwind quintets, a string quartet, four works for chamber orchestra, a brass quintet, a trio for clarinet, viola and piano, a symphony for winds and percussion, a major work for symphony orchestra, Songs from the Gulf of Sorrows, which was premiered by The Brevard Symphony Orchestra in 2016, a trio for flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano based on native American folk songs, a trio for woodwinds and a new orchestral work dedicated to Lalo Schifrin, Walter Scharf and Elmer Bernstein.  He now resides in Melbourne FL. and performs with his Orlando based, progressive jazz group, Strange Angels as well as musical collaborations with lifelong friend, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Larry Williams.

Kevin Wilt is a classical music evangelist. He composes music to introduce new audiences to the joy, drama, and adventure of classical music through familiar colors and lush textures, while engaging seasoned audiences with an underlying craftsmanship and sophistication. Composer John Corigliano praised his expert orchestration and beautiful writing, while the Bloomington Herald wrote, "[his music] has a keen sense of mood and tonal balance." Kevin's recent commissions include AutoBonn for Michael Francis and The Florida Orchestra, and March of the West River, premiered at the College Band Directors National Association Southern Division Conference.  He was a resident at the Millay Colony for the Arts, and winner of the Music Teachers National Association Commission in Florida. He won the Fresh Squeezed Opera Call for Scores with his chamber opera, Prix Fixe, and the Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble Composer Search. He was awarded a grant by the Atlantic Coast Conference Band Directors Association to create Urban Impressions, a multi-movement work for large wind ensemble. He was a recent finalist for the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Call for Scores, a finalist for the ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennel Prize, the Symphony Number One Call for Scores III, the Hartford Opera Theater Call for Scores, and the American Prize in orchestra, band, and chamber music categories.

Recent performances include those by the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra, the Boston New Music Initiative, Fifth House Ensemble, the h2 Quartet, Project Fusion, the Apollo Fund, SHUFFLE Concert, the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet, ensembles at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the University of Texas at Austin, Florida State University, the University of Kansas, the University of Oklahoma, Michigan State University, Kennesaw State University, as well as a reading by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Leonard Slatkin.

Kevin is equally at home composing for film and television, earning him a Michigan Emmy® Award Nomination for Best Musical Composition. Other film projects include The Inevitable, The Happy Couple, a string quartet for the short film Renegade, and The Wars of Other Men.

He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition and a Master in Music Composition from Michigan State University, where he studied with Ricardo Lorenz and Jere Hutcheson, and Bachelor of Music Composition and Theory from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

He is Associate Professor of Music, Composer-in-Residence, and Chair of the Florida Atlantic University Department of Music in Boca Raton.

His works are published by Whistling Vine Music and Murphy Music Press.

Evgeny Komarnitskiy began his musical journey at the age of four, a passion that has guided him throughout his life. After graduating with honors from the Vano Muradeli School of Music, where he studied with Irina Yerusalimskaya, he continued at the Sergei Prokofiev Music College under the guidance of Polina Podmazova. That journey continued at the prestigious Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow, where he earned his degree under Professor Leonid Bulatov.  Following his studies, Evgeny joined the orchestra of the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow, performing in more than 70 operas across the repertoire, from Wagner and Puccini to Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Korngold. These years at the Novaya Opera gave him a profound familiarity with the operatic tradition and a lasting foundation as a performing artist.  In the United States, Evgeny quickly found recognition, appearing as guest concertmaster with orchestras including the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, the Villages Philharmonic, the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. Today he performs widely as a soloist, bringing his music to audiences across the country and beyond.