Hollywood Symphony Orchestra Society, Dedicated to Film Music and Film Composers

On October 7, 2006, the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra followed its highly successful inaugural concert with another evening of exquisite symphonic music from the movies.

Over one hundred of Hollywood's top musicians and singers appeared on stage at UCLA's Royce Hall for an exciting gala event and concert program of world premiere and classic film scores performed by the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Founder and Artistic Director, John Scott, with special celebrity guests.

The concert program ranged all the way from Sergei Prokofiev’s classic score for the 1938 film “Alexander Nevsky” to the World Premiere of music from Clint Eastwood's "Flags of our Fathers," the World Premiere of music from Craig Armstrong's score to Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," and the U.S. Concert Premiere of a suite from “The Matrix,” by composer Don Davis. Other composers represented included Elmer Bernstein, Ernest Gold, Dave Grusin, Miklós Rózsa, John Scott, Dimitri Tiomkin, Maurice Jarre and John Williams.

Read Jon Burlingame's review of the concert.



Conductor John Scott with Guest Host Samantha Eggar	Guest Presenter Sydney Pollack, with Conductor John Scott
Guest Presenter Gina Torres at the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra Gala Concert	Guest Presenters Charles Durning, Sydney Pollack with Conductor John Scott
Guest Presenter John Badham, HSO General Manager John Beal	Guest Presenters Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher with Conductor John Scott
Sydney Pollack, Charles Durning, Samantha Eggar, John Scott	HSOS Treasurer Gary Dohner, Arlette Guizis-Dohner Helene Nielsen Beal, HSOS GM John Beal


Guest Host Samantha Eggar, Conductor John Scott	John Scott with VP Hilary Mackendrick	Helene Nielsen Beal and Charles Durning
Sydney Pollack, Charles Durning	Forbes Riley w/ USMC	Meg Wempel, John Scott

Sydney Pollack, Samantha Eggar

Sydney Pollack, Julie Newmar, John Scott

Guest Host
Samantha Eggar

Guest Presenters
John Badham, Charles Durning, Sydney Pollack,
Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, Gina Torres

The Composers
Craig Armstrong, Elmer Bernstein, Don Davis, Clint Eastwood, Ernest Gold,
Dave Grusin, Maurice Jarre, Sergei Prokofiev, Miklós Rózsa,
John Scott, Dimitri Tiomkin, John Williams

The Music
World Concert Premiere: Flags of our Fathers
World Concert Premiere: World Trade Center
U.S. Concert Premiere: The Matrix
Havana • Final Countdown • Exodus • The Man with the Golden Arm
The Alamo • Dracula • Lawrence of Arabia • El Cid • Alexander Nevsky
-program subject to change-

The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra Society held a small silent auction
which included a brand new baby grand Disklavier donated by YAMAHA.

Actor SAMANTHA EGGAR began her career in British theatre appearing in a Cecil Beaton production. She performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival and for two seasons at the prestigious Oxford Playhouse. At the Royal Court Theatre, she appeared as Titania in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and as Olivia in “Twelfth Night”. She starred with Anthony Hopkins at The Old Vic in Arthur Schnitzler’s “The Lonely Road” and opposite John Hurt in the Lyric’s production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull.”

Discovered onstage, Eggar first appeared on screen in “The Wild & the Willing.” In William Wyler’s “The Collector,” she earned a Palme d’Or as Best Actress at Cannes and an OSCAR® nomination. Among her many film credits are “Dr. Doolittle,” “Walk Don’t Run,” “Mareth Line,” “The Molly McGuires,” David Cronenberg’s “The Brood,” and “The Astronaut’s Wife.” Eggar’s television highlights include starring opposite Yul Brynner in ABC version of “Anna and the King,” the remake of “Double Indemnity,” in the role originated by Barbara Stanwyck, and “Love Among Thieves,” opposite Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wagner. She recently completed the television serie “Commander in Chief."

GINA TORRES currently stars on the new hit Fox drama "Standoff," also starring Ron Livingston, as the head of the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit. She will also star this February in Fox Searchlight film I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE, directed by and starring Chris Rock. Additional upcoming films include Lions Gate’s FIVE FINGERS and the independent dramas JAM and SOUTH OF PICO. Previous film credits include SERENITY, THE MATRIX RELOADED and THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, as well as the independent films HAIR SHOW and FAIR GAME. Torres’s additional television credits include very popular roles on "Alias," "The Shield," "Angel," "24," "Firefly" and "Cleopatra 2525." The youngest of three children, Torres grew up in the Bronx, New York. She is a graduate from the Fiorello LaGuardia School of Arts and began her acting career onstage in New York in such productions as Dreamgirls, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Face Value, Blood Wedding and A Raisin in the Sun. Torres resides in Los Angeles and New York with her actor husband, Laurence Fishburne.

CHARLES DURNING’s impressive 50-year acting career has been crowned by a Tony Award® and nominations for two Oscars and four Emmy awards. As a 17-year-old infantryman, Durning was among the first wave of men to land on Omaha Beach. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. We are honored to have him introduce tonight’s featured composition from the upcoming film Flags of our Fathers. Durning’s role in The Sting established him as one of the country’s leading character actors. He has more than 70 films to his credit, including The Front Page, Dog Day Afternoon, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Tootsie, Dick Tracy, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Home for the Holidays and State and Main. His television credits are equally impressive, including his Emmy-nominated performance in "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom," "Death of a Salesman," "Evening Shade" and "First Monday." He can currently be seen as the hilariously debauched father of Denis Leary’s character in "Rescue Me."

SYDNEY POLLACK’s 20 films have received 46 Academy Award nominations including two for Best Picture. His film Out of Africa won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Pollack. He won the New York Film Critics’ Award for his 1982 film Tootsie, and the David di Donatello Award for Three Days of the Condor. His film acting roles include Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives, Robert Altman’s The Player, Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. On television he has appeared on "Mad About You" and "Will & Grace." In 1985 he formed Mirage Productions. Under that banner, he’s produced films including Presumed Innocent, The Fabulous Baker Boys, White Palace, Major League, Searching For Bobby Fischer, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. In 2000, writer/director Anthony Minghella became a partner in Mirage Productions. Pollack is a founding member of The Sundance Institute and The Film Foundation, and is Chairman Emeritus of The American Cinematheque. He is also on the Board of Directors of The Motion Picture and Television Fund.

JOHN BADHAM directed the stylized Dracula (1979), starring Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier. He has earned the reputation of an "actor’s director" through a career impressive in range and diversity. In 1977, he guided a then-unknown John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, which has gone on to become one of the highest-grossing films of all time. His career hit another high point in 1983, when two films he directed that year, Blue Thunder and WarGames, received four Academy Award® nominations. Since then he’s collaborated with such luminaries as Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Johnny Depp and James Garner in films that have won both critical praise and box office success. Badham is also a prominent television producer and director. He served as an executive producer for and directed several episodes of the Steven Bochco drama "Blind Justice." He received two Emmy® nominations for his work on the ’70s series "The Senator" and "The Law," and has directed episodes of "The Shield," "Just Legal," "Night Gallery" and "The Streets of San Francisco." Badham did undergraduate work at Yale in philosophy, and received his master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama. He is Professor of Media Arts at The Dodge School of Film and Media at Chapman University in Orange, California.

MICHAEL SHAMBERG AND STACEY SHER are partners in Double Feature Films, which produced World Trade Center. Their next effort is Freedom Writers (to be released January 2007), written by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank as a young teacher who inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance and pursue education beyond high school. Also being released next year is Reno, 911 based on the Comedy Central hit series they produce. Shamberg and Sher produced the Academy Award-nominated films Erin Brockovich, Pulp Fiction and The Big Chill. Shamberg’s other credits include Garden State, Along Came Polly, Camp, Out of Sight, Reality Bites, Get Shorty, Gattaca, Living Out Loud, Man on the Moon, and the Oscar winning A Fish Called Wanda. Sher’s other credits include Garden State, Along Came Polly, Camp, Out of Sight, Reality Bites, Get Shorty, Gattaca, Living Out Loud and Man on the Moon.

photography - Bill Dow