WMS Music Director Scott Speck to Discuss History of Jewish Hollywood

March 7, 2012 - PRLog -- Muskegon, Michigan, March 7, 2012 – Scott Speck, music director for the West Michigan Symphony, will give a free talk at Temple B’nai Israel on the topic of Jewish Hollywood on March 21.

Speck’s presentation will focus on the music of Hollywood films. The 7 p.m. talk will span film scores from the 1930s to the present, but will particularly focus on composers of the 1940s.

“A lot of our greatest film composers were Jewish,” Speck said. “That was not a coincidence. The unfortunate circumstances of Hitler’s Germany and Austria led many already successful composers to be chased out or to escape to the United States. These composers quickly found a home in Hollywood. So this boom in American musical composition that occurred really came out of tremendously horrifying circumstances.”

Among the composers Speck will discuss are: Leonard Bernstein, “West Side Story,” “On the Waterfront;” Bernard Herrmann, “Citizen Kane,” “Psycho,” “North by Northwest,” “Vertigo,” “Taxi Driver;” Max Steiner, “King Kong,” “Casablanca,” “Gone with the Wind;” and Franz Waxman, “Rebecca,” “Suspicion,” “Rear Window,” “Sunset Boulevard.”

“All these composers had several things in common: A love for the old masters and a desire to translate the Romantic symphonic sound into film,” Speck said. “However, it’s striking that with the exception of Bernstein, none of these composers particularly made a big deal about their Jewishness – nor is any of them really well known for having written ‘Jewish-sounding’ music.  We will explore the themes in their music in what I plan to be an entertaining and engaging discussion.”

About West Michigan Symphony
As one of the few professional regional orchestras in Michigan, West Michigan Symphony has played a leading role in the region’s cultural community for more than 70 years.  Founded as the West Shore Symphony Orchestra, WMS now serves a regional audience with eight pairs of concerts annually, along with dozens of educational and outreach activities for children and adults. WMS oversees operations for the West Michigan Youth Symphony.  For more information, visit www.westmichigansymphony.org.

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