Orchestrology

Live-to-picture concerts, a.k.a. when a live orchestra performs alongside a film, are a cornerstone of the current resurgence in orchestral music. Bethany Brinton, composer, arranger, and orchestrator, has worked on numerous films through Film Concerts Live.

For many people, film soundtracks are their first encounter with an orchestra. So, bringing that to the live setting is an excellent throughline for experiencing the magic of the most human-involved performance format in history.

Bethany has worked on numerous films including How to Train Your Dragon, James Bond, The Princess Bride, and Jaws, for which John Williams himself wrote some new original music to fill out the live format.

I wasn’t aware of that until this conversation. When orchestras perform these concerts, they don’t simply take the sheet music used to record the film and play it back. Sometimes that sheet music is lost. Other times parts were recorded electronically, and she needs to write them out for live players.

Also quite often, live-to-picture films insert intermissions into movies that don’t otherwise have them. That was the case when I saw Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope with an orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, and there was new music added around the intermission.

So, while the themes and beats that make these movies so memorable will be the same, the music is an original experience. Listen to dive deep into the process and how it comes to life.

Episode 3 of the podcast welcomes composer, arranger, conductor, bassist, and music director Derrick Hodge.

Derrick has made history multiple times with an orchestra. He wrote the arrangements for Nas’s rap masterpiece Illmatic, which they performed at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. It was the first time hip-hop had ever been performed on that stage.

Fast forward a few years, Derrick set a world record for the largest hip-hop orchestra of all time, bringing together 101 players to perform with Jeezy in Las Vegas.

In between those two moments, he’s worked with Anderson .Paak, WILLOW, Common, and he did all the special guest arrangements for when the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed at Coachella.

Episode 2 of the podcast welcomes the seasoned composer, arranger, and guitarist, Trey Pollard.

Some of you may have seen me on Kat Calls a few weeks ago, speaking to my dear friend, fellow outstanding journalist, and leader of Super Kat World, Kat Bein, about Orchestrology. She asked me where I believe people should start when they want to get into these orchestral crossover performances, and my answer was Faye Webster’s orchestral EP, Car Therapy Sessions.

Why would I say that when my favorite living artist, St. Vincent, has an orchestral album? Because when Faye helmed an orchestral work, she didn’t add an orchestra on top of her normal band. She fully integrated the songs into the historic performance format, and Trey wrote all of those orchestral parts.

He then doubled down on his work with Faye when she went on her tour entitled “An Evening With Faye Webster.” For this six-date run, playing concert halls in LA, Atlanta, and Oakland, she sang the songs from Car Therapy Sessions with a full orchestral backing, but Trey also arranged more of her favorites, including “In A Good Way” (which is my favorite song of hers).

Check out the podcast to learn more about his work with Faye as well as Snail Mail, Bedouine, Helado Negro, Kevin Morby, and many more.

Hello! I’m excited to share the debut episode of the Orchestrology Podcast with none other than HAYLA. In addition to killing the vocals on dance music hits like “Where You Are” with John Summit, “In My Arms” with ILLENIUM, and “Escape” with Kx5, she has sung with orchestras on Pete Tong’s Ibiza Classics tour and during BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The podcast goes into those performances and also her sophomore album, DARK, which is due out on July 31.