TOLEDO, OH — The Toledo Symphony Orchestra will present the Star Wars: A New Hope In Concert featuring a screening of the complete 1977 film with Oscar®-winning composer John Williams’ musical score performed live to the film. The concert will be led by acclaimed conductor Steven Jarvi, Interim Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Opera and former Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony.
Fans will be able to experience the scope and grandeur of this beloved film in a live symphonic concert experience, when the Star Wars: A New Hope debuts on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 8 p.m. at the Huntington Center.
“We are thrilled to present the original Star Wars film at the Huntington Center,” said Zak Vassar, President & CEO of the Toledo Symphony. “The music and movie are iconic, and this event will be one of the many ways that we will celebrate our 75th Anniversary with our community. The sound will be massive, the screen will be massive, and we hope that the audience will be massive!” Vassar added, “These types of ‘movie play-alongs’ have become increasingly popular with audiences, and May the Fourth has become a big holiday among Star Wars fans. When the opportunity to be part of this project came along, we jumped at the chance. This will be a great night, and I hope we’ll all take a few memories home with us.”
Legendary composer John Williams is well known for scoring all eight of the Star Wars saga films to date, beginning with 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope for which he earned an Academy Award® for Best Original Score. His scores for The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and most recently Star Wars: The Last Jedi were each nominated for Best Original Score.
Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and 23 Grammy Awards. With 51 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the Academy’s most nominated living person and the second most nominated individual in history, after Walt Disney.
In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams' score to 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope
as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to A New Hope also was preserved by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry, for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the National Medal of Arts in 2009, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. Williams has composed the scores for eight of the top 20 highest-grossing films at the U.S. Box Office.
Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert will take place Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 8 p.m. at the Huntington Center. Toledo Symphony subscribers can purchase tickets now. Tickets start at $27 and will go on sale to the general public beginning August 1, 2018. Tickets are available at ticketmaster.com, by calling the Toledo Symphony Box Office at 419-246-8000, or stopping by in person at the Toledo Symphony or Huntington Center Box Offices.
For more information, please contact Felecia Kanney, Director of Marketing for the Toledo Symphony at [email protected].
The Star Wars: Film Concert Series is produced under license by Disney Concerts in association with 20th Century Fox and Warner/Chappell Music.
STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © & TM
ABOUT DISNEY CONCERTS
Disney Concerts is the concert production and licensing division of Disney Music Group, the
music arm of The Walt Disney Company. Disney Concerts produces concerts and tours, and
licenses Disney music and visual content to symphony orchestras and presenters on a worldwide
basis. Disney Concerts’ concert packages include a variety of formats, such as “live to picture”
film concerts and themed instrumental and vocal compilation concerts, and range from
instrumental-only symphonic performances to multimedia productions featuring live vocalists
and choir. Current titles include the Star Wars Film Concert Series (Episodes IV-VII), Beauty
and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Fantasia, Pixar In Concert, The Nightmare Before
Christmas, Alice In Wonderland, Frozen, Ratatouille, The Pirates of the Caribbean Series
(Episodes I-IV), and Silly Symphonies, which last year collectively accounted for over 400
performances in many of the world’s top concert venues, including Lincoln Center, Royal Albert
Hall, Sydney Opera House, Tokyo Forum and the Hollywood Bowl. Numerous new concert
packages and touring productions from Disney’s portfolio of studios, including Disney’s feature
animation and live action studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel, are currently in development.
FILM SYNOPSIS
Set 30 years after Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: A New Hope, the fourth episode
of the saga, returns to the desert planet of Tatooine. A young Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
begins to discover his destiny when, searching for a lost droid, he is saved by reclusive Jedi Obi-
Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). A civil war rages in the galaxy, and Rebel forces struggle against
the evil Galactic Empire, Luke and Obi-Wan enlist the aid of hotshot pilot, Han Solo (Harrison
Ford). Joined by the quirky droid duo R2-D2 and C-3PO, the unlikely team sets out to rescue
Rebel leader Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and make use of the stolen plans to destroy the
Empire's ultimate weapon. In a legendary confrontation, the rogue group mounts an attack
against the Death Star for a climactic battle with the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
TOLEDO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Toledo Symphony is a community-supported organization of professional musicians and
teachers who deliver quality performance and music education for all.
Formed in 1943 as The Friends of Music and incorporated in 1951 as the Toledo Orchestra
Association, Inc., the Toledo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has grown from a core group of
twenty-two part-time musicians to a regional orchestra that employs sixty-five professional
musicians who consider the Toledo Symphony their primary employer, as well as numerous
extra players annually as repertoire demands.
The Toledo Symphony reaches more than 260,000 individuals annually through performances
and education programs. The series concerts (Masterworks, Pops, Chamber, Mozart in the
Afternoon, and Family Series) are the critical underpinning of the orchestra’s artistic mission and
regularly draw people from 135 postal zip codes. Additionally, Music Under the Stars, a free
summer band concert series, is held annually at the Toledo Zoo. Education programs, student
performances, and community concerts are held in schools, neighborhood churches, performing
arts centers, and community facilities throughout the region; many are offered at no charge or
provided at a reduced fee to help expand participation.