Lord of the Rings: In Concert

Let’s Preface with a Bit of Information

In 2004, a live performance of the music from Lord of the Rings was done at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada. It wasn’t a complete performance, though; it was selections broken into six movements. The best part of this, though, is that it was filmed and made into a DVD with lots of extra information from Howard Shore about the process of writing and recording this amazing score, and of course, accompanied by illustrations from the wonderful Alan Lee and John Howe. In 2009, I was lucky enough to be given a copy of this DVD by an equally-LOTR-obsessed friend, Terri. I watched it home alone one night, cranked the stereo up to eleven, and bawled my way through its awesomeness.

In 2011, a fabulous thing went on a tour around the United States. It was called “Lord of the Rings In Concert,” and it consisted of the first movie (Fellowship) being played on a HUGE screen in an arena while the soundtrack was performed by a live orchestra and concert. (I think it was piggybacking off the success of Star Wars In Concert, which turned out to actually be a medley of songs from the movies, but impressive nonetheless.) At any rate, LOTRIC came to Oakland in October of that year, I believe, and I bought tickets to both shows that day because I (wrongly) assumed that it was going to be a medley, like Star Wars! No. It wasn’t. It was the whole movie. Theatrical release, not extended. But still.

I actually met some pretty cool folks that day, and there were a bunch of movie-worn costumes and props touring along with it. I even met up with my high school friend Joy and her husband and we watched the second performance together.

Flash Forward to 2014

…and much to my dismay, the rest of the movies never came back to town! Periodically I’d look for updates, either on the official tour website (which was quiet for a while and then went offline altogether) or simply by Googling, which told me that events WERE still happening but just in… completely different countries like Germany and Japan. I even took it upon myself to send an email to the author of “The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films,” Douglas Adams, to see if he had ANY idea as to what had happened. (Emailing Howard Shore himself was a bit out of my scope.) I never heard anything back, though. (That is an absolutely beautiful tome, by the way. It’s full of hi-res images, interviews with Howard, and if you’re at all into musical scoring and how they twist and turn themes and weave them in and out of each other, then it is the book for you. It’s definitely one of the gems of my collection.)

And then in October of 2014, I saw that all THREE MOVIES were going to be performed– in quick succession– at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. HEY. That’s rude. That’s way out of my budget! Why not a tour? COME ON! But they were apparently doing two shows of every movie and they were going to be flying in a Swiss orchestra who had done the movies a bunch of times already, but never in one batch like this.

I was a bit (read: very) disappointed, but not for long. Because in November of 2014 I saw a post from my local news outlet:

HEY NOW, HEY NOW. San Jo-freaking-se?! THAT IS MY TOWN. Well, damn close to it. I’m two blocks away from its north end. Downtown San Jose is a ten-minute drive with no traffic. This… this was amazing. And it was going to be performed by our local symphony, no less! What a feat! Like, you don’t even understand how excited I was– not only by the event but its location. I always assumed that if something like this were to be done again, it’d be in San Francisco, because that’s just generally where things of prestige are done. I … cannot stand San Francisco, if we’re being honest. It’s cold, it’s dirty, it’s far away, it’s a bitch to get to, the people are pissheads. I like it even less now that rent has skyrocketed and they’re booting out poor people to make room for pompous sandwich shoppes. ANYWAY, I enjoy San Jose so much more and to see it was happening here, so close, made me extremely happy.

The article announced tickets were going on sale the next day, so I sped downstairs and flailed at my parents a bit. My father decided he and I would go (he’d buy), and then a few minutes before 10am the next day he called me at work and we made it happen. (Not without hiccups, though. Poor SSV’s website was NOT equipped for the kind of attention it ended up getting.)

I’m not sure I’m getting across quite how excited I was for this, though. Every few days I’d think about this event happening– IS IT APRIL YET– and I would legitimately get this huge grin on my face. I’d bounce around the room until the feeling passed and then I’d get back to whatever I was doing. Here’s instagram proof of my excited flailing:

Having secured my tickets, all I had to do was… wait.

Fate Takes a Weird Turn

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a musician. In addition to playing a few instruments, I sing. I sing a lot. At the top of my list of dreams (were I to have such a thing) would be “tour the world with a band as lead singer.” I’ve been in a few bands in my youth but the members have all had varying stages of commitment and it’s hard to tour the world when your guitarist would rather go to work, lol. So that’s been on the back burner for a while, but I check Craigslist every once in a while to see if anyone’s looking for a singer with some awesome chops.

Anyway, on December 30th, I was browsing Craigslist and I saw the following headline: “SINGERS WANTED: Lord of the Rings In Concert Singers Wanted.” Needless to say, I clicked, read through the details, and posted a sort of angry Facebook message expressing how cool it’d be to do but how could I be in it if I’m watching it? We already had tickets!!

Luckily, some of my friends jumped on my back about auditioning (“if you get in you can sell the tickets!”), and my father said (and I quote), “Fucking audition. If you get in, mom can have your ticket.” So I submitted an audition request form. I explained that while I didn’t actually have any choral experience, I did know how to read music and I’ve taken numerous years of voice lessons… in addition to being a HUGE fan of Lord of the Rings and its score. A week or so later, I got an email telling me I could sign up for an audition slot! I picked January 28th, which was far enough away to give me time to prepare something, but not the very last slot… waiting that long would’ve just driven me crazy.

My friend Fran (who is from Ireland and has an innate knowledge of all things Celtic) and I worked on picking an audition song. I wanted something vaguely Elvish and Enya-like without actually being either of those things, because hello cliché. I don’t remember what we’d ended up settling on (I definitely wanted to do “Swanheart” by Nightwish, but for some reason there is NO sheet music for this ANYWHERE (music community, you have FAILED me)), but I was looking up sheet music for whatever it was when I got another email telling us that we did NOT have to prepare a song. We were instead going to be tested for range, ability to repeat, and ability to sight-sing. There simply wasn’t enough time in the audition slots to have everyone sing a song.

January 28th came and went; like I said, I don’t have much chorale experience (I doubt grade-school singing counts), but I gave it my best shot. I’d warmed up well, my break was gone, my transitions were smooth, and I didn’t completely blow it on the sight-singing.

I drove home feeling pretty good about it, though, and really good about the fact that I had done it. Just auditioning was a huge thing for me to do and I was really proud, no matter how it turned out. All that was left to do was wait; I’d be at the show whether on stage or in the seats!

A week came and went, and I was starting to get more than a little anxious. What if I didn’t get in and they just didn’t tell me? Rehearsals are starting soon! I probably didn’t get in. A good friend of mine (who was a bit familiar with my singing) did his best to assuage my fears, which was absolutely sweet of him but I don’t think worked! Although, he was definitely able to say “SEE I TOLD YOU SO” (not that he said it like that, exactly) because a few days later…

I GOT IN!!

(Like there was any doubt. Otherwise this would be kind of a short post.)

It didn’t actually become real until I’d logged myself into the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale message boards using my first and last name. At that point I could tell myself, this mass email wasn’t a mistake– they didn’t add my name to the list accidentally– look, it’s ME, it’s my name here, they put me on the list.

At that point I flew downstairs (almost literally, missing quite a few steps there) and screamed at my parents with joy for a few minutes. I may have almost cried, even. My ever-encouraging friend didn’t hear the news until a few hours later, but man, I wish he’d been there when I’d first checked my email and found out. My reaction was pretty priceless.

It was ridiculously validating, in a way. Like all my years of singing had prepared me for this. I WAS good enough. This IS something I can do. I can be recognized by a professional institution as a singer. A good singer. On top of Lord of the Rings being one of my favorite things in the world… to have the chance to combine two of my favorite things was just unworldly. Anyway, this announcement quickly became my most-liked Facebook post ever.

Here mom, you officially get my ticket.

Rehearsals

The first rehearsal was the following Wednesday. I had to change my work schedule around a bit in order to have time to warm up and drive 20 miles to other side of the valley to the college where we’d be rehearsing, but waking up early every week was worth it. At the first rehearsal, I discovered who “that guy” was– the one who did the auditions. His name was Lou de la Rosa, and he is the choral instructor at West Valley College (where rehearsals were held), and he was also in charge of getting us ready for the show. His assistant was David, who was actually in the Symphony Silicon Valley Choir, and we also had the head of Symphony Silicon Valley there, Andrew Bales, who said some words about the production.

The coolest piece of information Bales said was that we were the first company in the WORLD to be doing something like this. No other orchestra had ever taken it upon themselves to learn and perform ALL THREE MOVIES at once. The Swiss company that was doing the New York performances had done all three movies before, yes, but not at once and not all in the same place. Not even master conductor Ludwig Wicki had ever done all three in one sitting before! And here we are– little ol’ Symphony Silicon Valley. Not the San Francisco Symphony, not the San Diego Symphony, not the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra. US!

This was officially sanctioned by Howard Shore and his offices, and no, the choir was not getting paid. The orchestra would be (because they’re unionized, but they agreed to take a pay cut due to the huge expense of putting this show on) but there were simply too many layers of royalties happening for the choir to get anything. That was fine by me. I hadn’t been expecting anything. Getting to perform this was reward enough!

This had been in the works for over a year, ever since it had been announced that it was going to be performed at New York. Bales and his crew called up Howard’s offices and were like, “Hey, we want to do this too.” Hmm. This is going to be expensive, Mr. Bales. Are you sure you can pull together a large enough– and good enough– choir for this? Because any orchestra can perform the music, but it’ll be the choir that makes or breaks the performances, Bales. CAN YOU DO THIS?

SSV took a leap of faith and poured $800,000 into this event.

Rehearsals were a lot of fun. A lot of hard work, though. We had an amazing accompanist– the newly-appointed Music Director at San Jose State University, Michael DiGiacinto. There are many good pianists, but being a good accompanist is another skillset entirely. I’ve been lucky enough to work with only a few great ones (Lorna, Janet Holmes), and I count him among them.

I had to work my ass off, though. As someone who’s not used to sight-singing, this was a bitch and a half! And it’s not like I could just listen to the score and sing along, because the mix on the soundtracks was very cruel to the choir. (Someone mentioned at one point that this might be why Howard Shore was so keen on these performances being done everywhere: he wrote some fucking amazing choral pieces and he wanted people to HEAR THEM, DAMMIT.) There were definitely times I’d find myself singing the soprano line instead of the harmony note I was supposed to be singing. (Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing– as long as you’re in the chord, you can’t really complain. It’s just a balance issue. NEEDS MORE ALTO.) I spent many nights with my piano, banging out my line and making sure I knew what it was in comparison to the notes the other women were going to be singing. Also, I taught myself how to hear my note ahead of time– when does it come up in the score? The violins play it, right there. The French Horns have it, but it’s two minutes before you come in– can you remember it?

I am proud to say that I made it to every single rehearsal. It was something I’d committed to doing, and no matter how lazy I was feeling or how sick I was, I drove my ass over there. And I was better for it, I think. I also recorded every rehearsal on my iPod so that I could go over it later and listen for notes, even though one of the sopranos did take notes every night and emailed them to us the next day. And I DID definitely get sick– for the last rehearsal at the college, I was sicker than I’d been in a while. I hadn’t gone to work that day and I probably shouldn’t have gone to rehearsal either, but it was the last regular one! It’s a good thing I was in the seat right by the door, because it was the one time I’d forgotten my water bottle… and I’d sing a note, my voice would hitch, and I’d be launched into a coughing fit. Highly embarrassing, but whatever. Shit happens.

Joining the Orchestra and the Conductor

The Saturday after our last routine rehearsal (April 4th, crunch time) was going to be in downtown San Jose. It took place in the offshoot of the convention center– a glorified tent, basically, that they use as an additional hall when all the others are in use. Easily 600 feet long and 100 feet wide, it was a huge echo chamber and conveniently located right under the landing path for the San Jose International Airport. (When the sopranos ended on that high B though and it rang out, man, it was glorious.)

We were finally introduced to the man who would be conducting our performances, an absolutely wonderful fellow named Shih-Hung Young (pronounced She-Hung). A professor at Julliard, he’d just gotten done conducting Return of the King in Germany and had taken a red-eye to New York, had breakfast with his son, and hopped on another flight to California. He was fucking brilliant and I completely adored working with him. He had a lovely sense of humor and had probably seen the movies too many times, but you could still tell he absolutely loved what he was doing and gave it his all, every single time. It was honestly inspiring.

He shared little anecdotes periodically to help us know what was going on in the movie at that point, since we had yet to sing with the films (or even the orchestra). For example, “This is when Gandalf walks into the hall to confront Théoden and tosses off his ratty grey robe to reveal… he’s done his laundry!” He also clarified a few Elvish pronunciations we’d had trouble on, and grinned like a fool every time we sang his favorite part (tha-lo-ZIN-ga). He challenged us at every turn, and we did our best to meet him there.

We had a rather grueling rehearsal schedule in the three weeks leading up to the performances. That Saturday was from 3pm to 10pm, with an hour for dinner (and catered sandwiches). We had practices all that week, being joined occasionally by the two children’s choirs that would be with us onstage (the Cantabile Youth Singers and the Ragazzi Boys Choir, both local organizations). The 10th was the first time we rehearsed with the orchestra, and it was a wondrous experience and thrilling to finally hear all the pieces come together.

April 11th was a huge day– the choir spent twelve and a half hours in that tent, from 10am to 10:30pm. (Alright, they gave us an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner, with breaks every two hours for the orchestra as mandated by union rules.) But it was quite a long time to spend sitting in those bleachers, and we were all starting to go a little crazy by the end of it.

The following Monday, we moved into the theatre itself to perform alongside the movies for the first time. We started with The Two Towers, then Return of the King, and the night before we did Fellowship we practiced… Fellowship. It was our one shot with each movie to iron out any technical glitches; as far as the music goes, we were done. We’d practiced enough. There was going to be no chance here to stop and work on things, because once that logo appears on the screen… there was no stopping the train!

It’s an interesting experience to be so constrained by time. In any normal setting, the conductor can set his own pace. You can put a flourish on any note you want. You can drag the tempo or speed it up. But when you’re playing alongside a movie… you have to be ON IT. The conductor worked with a copy of the movie right in front of him, except it was peppered with dots and lines signifying the beat and when to cut off. I’d glimpsed such technology from afar when seeing the shows in 2011, but it was cool to be able to see it up close. You can see the tech used for yourself in this amazing video I had no clue was happening but am *definitely* in multiple times (see the tall girl in the top row? I’m two left of her):

Performing the Magic

All too soon, it was time for opening night. We dressed in our concert blacks, headed into the theater, and met in the bowels of the theater to warm up and congratulate each other on making it this far.

The performances went by in a blur. We received standing ovations at every single intermission (!!!) and curtain call, and after the first performance of Return of the King, we did three bows. Three bows! It was incredible.

Each show was pretty close to being sold out. There was a pocket in the middle each night (the REALLY expensive seats), but the balcony was completely packed. They were chock-full of nerds, too. People that dressed up, people that cried, people that laughed at “One does not simply walk into Mordor,” people that cheered vivaciously when Eowyn chopped off the head of the Witch King. I’ve never been more honored to be among my own people! I’m just sad that I wasn’t able to manage being in the choir AND in the audience, just so I could hear how it sounded.

The performances were not without errors, though. One show started over after the performance ended. At one point some words cut out– good thing the movie had captions on! And Maestro did the first part of one of the shows without his monitor working at all– now THAT is a feat, considering he absolutely needs it to stay on beat! He waved frantically during a quiet point (when our lights were down) and some techs came over and fixed it. I also managed to lose my shit giggling during one of the shows:

I lost my shit today during the Shelob scenes and I could NOT STOP LAUGHING. I was burrowing into my folder so no one in the audience could see me. Whenever the air conditioning kicks on in the theater (which, sadly, is not nearly often enough– we were all sweaty messes) it gently tries to fuck with the pages of the instrumentalists’ music. Today it went after the first trombone. (It happened a bit earlier too, but the French Horn next to him, who was not busy at that moment, had his back.) He was playing at the time, but they were slow half notes, so he’d let the page float about to a 90° angle and then whack it back into place. There’s no singing there, so I was just watching and chuckling. About the fifth time, he had gotten a bit frustrated, so he grabbed the page and kinda angrily crumpled it in the middle to make it stay. I was just about full-on laughing at this point, but when the page floated away again IN SPITE OF THE CRUMPLE I just lost it. Whole body shaking silently. And then I looked up again and the page was completely gone for a second. I don’t know what he did with it. But I was still trying to cover up the throes of a giggle fit and then I looked again and it was back. Man, talk about the worst scene to be crying-laughing during… giant spider trying to kill everyone? HEHEHEEEHEHEHE FOR SURE

I also convinced my mom to grab a bunch of extra programs so I could send them to friends and family around the world that couldn’t make the performances. Also, I got one autographed by the conductor. Why not?

Speaking of autographs, our featured soloist was a lovely young woman by the name of Clara Sanabras. She has sung along with the movies all over the world and has worked with Howard Shore so often that he invited her to be a featured soloist on the soundtrack for the first Hobbit movie! When I found this out, I dashed home and listened to the whole thing trying to pick her out– and I did. You can hear her on track #26, “A Good Omen.” I actually have a physical copy of that soundtrack, and I brought it in for her to sign! She was surprised and delighted, saying she’d never actually seen a physical copy of the soundtrack. She hadn’t even physically gone to Howard to record her bit for the song– Howard was in New Zealand at the time; it was right before the movie was being released and he and Peter Jackson were putting the final touches on the soundtrack. She recorded it live straight to him, and bam! He put it in. Voila.

Word on the street is that they did recoup the money they spent to put these on– and then some. A trend occurred: people had tickets for The Fellowship of the Ring, saw the show, thought it was insanely awesome, and bought tickets for the other two movies. Some people came from really far away, too– we sold tickets in Texas and Washington, and my mother even sat next to a fellow on Saturday for Return of the King who mentioned being from Arizona. He had one day off, and he flew in that very morning for Return of the King. He was seeing the evening show of Fellowship, and flying back home after. Now that’s dedication! Nerds from all over!

I even had a few friends show up. My friend Susie saw two showings, my friend Glenn and his mother came to a show, my friend Yvonne went to one show, and a teacher of mine from high school went to all three and came to see me at the stage door!

It was so exhausting, though. We did one show Thursday, one Friday, and then two each on Saturday and Sunday. I was glad when it was over, but it was bittersweet. I couldn’t have handled another performance the very next day– but the following weekend? Sure! Let’s do it all again!

Listening to the soundtrack now holds very different memories for me than before. I sing along with parts that I never even knew had choral bits before. I laugh when Gandalf rips off his robe. I get chills when the company is in the depths of Moria and Gandalf decides to “allow a little more light”– god, the men’s choral bit there is absolutely amazing and I beg of you to listen very carefully the next time you watch that part. I get chills when Haldir’s company of elves marches into Helms Deep. There are so many moments of beauty that I wasn’t aware of before and it has made the soundtrack all the more amazing.

All in all, we managed to squish 250 on that stage every night (90-piece orchestra and 160 choral members) and support Frodo and Sam from The Shire all the way to the fiery hell of Mordor– and back again. It’s definitely one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made, auditioning for this– and I know that when I’m old and dying, this will play on the highlight reel of my life.

Not to mention that if I ever wanted to join the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, I have been cordially invited.

Please be sure to check out the LOTR Links page for supplementary photos, videos, and press releases!!