‘A very symphonic style’: The Florida Orchestra takes on ‘Star Wars’

Long ago, in a concert hall far, far away …

Well, not really that far – Tampa (the Straz Center), St. Petersburg (the Mahaffey Theater) and Clearwater (Ruth Eckerd Hall) are playing host to The Florida Orchestra over the weekend with a full Pops concert of music from the Star Wars movies – all of them.

Guest conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony. “Symphonic music has the power, more than almost any other type of music, to really enhance any genre,” he tells he Catalyst. “Put a rock band with an orchestra, a rapper, an ‘80s group, a disco show, you name it. A symphony orchestra can enhance and bring out so many unique and intricate colors that a four- or five-member band cannot.

“And an orchestra, now more than ever, symbolizes something that is just so beautiful and needed more in society – this type of pure collaboration where 80-some people are coming together to create something beautiful and unique that any one of them on their own could not do.”

Lopez-Yañez arranges and conducts everything from Beatles to country to Motown symphony concerts (plus specialty shows like The Music of Star Wars).

Nashville Parent magazine says his concerts “breathe new, exuberant life into classical programming for kids and families.”

Image: The Florida Orchestra

John Williams’ Star Wars music, the conductor insists, is so potent, and so recognizable, that it doesn’t need video screens or other visual aids in performance. “So much of the visual would be nothing without the music,” says Lopez-Yañez. “And the music creates and inevitably paints these pictures of the action in our minds, just through listening to it.”

Still, there will be characters from the Star Wars films roaming the lobbies for photo ops, and visitors, of any age, are encouraged to wear costumes.

It’s just an excuse to have fun, promises Lopez-Yañez, a major advocate for music education. It’s not a clever ploy to create a new, younger-skewing classical music audience.

“There are a lot of people who subscribe to the idea of ‘Oh, if we get them in through Pops shows, then we’ll turn them into classical music lovers.’ I am less an advocate for that,” he says. “There’s been tons of research done, and it’s been proven that that doesn’t typically happen. That is not the case.

“Now, with something like John Williams’ music, I think there might be a chance of that. Because John Williams is writing in a very symphonic style. I mean his influences are Stravinsky, through Prokofiev, through American composers like Hanson and Holst. You can hear these great classical masters represented in his music.

“So if you like his music, absolutely you might like and fall in love with some of these other classical composers.”

Lopez-Yañez, of Mexican descent, grew up playing piano, trumpet and drums. He was in rock, mariachi and klezmer groups before beginning his classical education (he holds a Masters in Music, and another Masters in Orchestral Conducting).

Subsequently, he understands the power of music – all music – to transform.

“My aim in programming,” he explains, “is much more about having people fall in love with symphonic music. So that doesn’t necessarily mean classical. That just means music in which an orchestra is involved in the creation.

“That, to me, is one of the most important goals for orchestras, if we want to be committing in our missions to serving our communities – accepting the fact that maybe not every person is going to be a classical music lover.

“But that doesn’t mean that we can’t serve them, and we can’t be a part of their entertainment needs, goals and wishes.”

For tickets and additional information, click here.