Robbi Kearns, Producer at CAMI Music writes: Hello to every one at theonering.net. I hope all is well. I saw a posting on July 6th regarding the performance of the LOTR Symphony in Cleveland and wanted to confirm that Howard Shore is conducting the performance in Cleveland on Saturday July 21st. For more information or tickets, please visit the orchestra’s web site at clevelandorch.com

Katie writes: I received an advertisement in the mail today about a Lord of the Rings concert performed by the Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Festival Chorus at the 2007 Blossom Festival in Cleveland, Ohio on July 21 at 9:00PM. Prices for reserved pavilion seats start at $26 and general admission lawn tickets are $22. Gates open early at 6:30PM for picnicking. Tickets can be purchased by calling (216)231-1111 or (800)686-1141, or online at their website: clevelandorchestra.com. Also, if I have understood the letter correctly, it says that Howard Shore will be conducting! Again, this may or may not be correct. Either way, it sounds like something you wouldn’t want to miss. πŸ™‚ More information can be found at their website.

The music from Lord of the Rings has been voted the top movie soundtrack for the fifth year running. The Oscar-winning score composed by Howard Shore was the clear favourite in the poll by Classic FM. Hans Zimmer’s epic soundtrack for Russell Crowe film Gladiator was second. In third place was the 2004 film Ladies In Lavender, which starred Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith. The score was written by Nigel Hess. [More]

Although famed composers ranging from Sergei Prokofiev to Aaron Copland have written music for movies, the classical music world has tended to look down their noses at it. But that attitude is changing. The San Francisco Symphony and Brooklyn Philharmonic are now regularly programing such music, and, in September 2004, cellist Yo-Yo Ma released an album devoted to the film works of Ennio Morricone. Then there’s “The Lord of the Rings Symphony.” In an effort to get his music performed not only on the screen but in concert halls as well, movie composer Howard Shore fashioned his scores for the blockbuster trilogy into a popular six-movement symphony. [More]

As you might expect of anything connected to The Lord of the Rings, the numbers behind Howard Shore’s score for the Peter Jackson film trilogy are mighty impressive:

β€’ Four months of solid research.
β€’ Nearly four years to compose.
β€’ A total of 11 hours of music.
β€’ More than 50 leitmotifs (individual themes).

“It was pretty daunting at first,” Shore admitted of the task. “Writing film scores is always difficult to do – but the funny thing was, I didn’t want to stop when it was over.”

Shore has since moved on to other projects: He’s preparing a staged version of The Fly for L.A. Opera with film director David Cronenberg and author David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly). [More]