New Philharmonic, the professional orchestra in residence at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC), opens its 2021-2022 Season before live audiences with “Halloween Spooktakular” concerts 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3.
“Scary movies wouldn’t be half as much fun without the music,” says New Philharmonic conductor and music director Kirk Muspratt. “For the first concert of our season we are excited to present a delicious mix of some of the scariest classical and film score music to help our audience get into the spirit of one of our most popular holidays, Halloween.” “Scary movies and scary music have been integrally connected as far back as the German Expressionist vampire movie ‘Nosferatu.’ But before ‘Nosferatu,’ classical music composers were already creating works that sent chills down the spines of audiences. Some of those works have actually been featured in movie scores and many have served as inspiration for score composers to date.”
Under the baton of Maestro Muspratt, the Halloween-costumed musicians of New Philharmonic will conjure up the aura of spirits living and dead with musical treats including:
• The Hungarian March from “The Damnation of Faust” by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869).
Berlioz described the initial Hungarian audience’s excitement as “a volcano in eruption,” against which “the thunders of the orchestra were powerless;”
• “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881). This work gained great exposure through the Walt Disney animated film “Fantasia” (1940);
• “Witches Sabbath” from “Symphonie Fantastique” by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). The final movement of this symphony was used in the Julia Roberts movie, “Sleeping With The Enemy.”
The program also includes music from eerie and other-worldly film favorites including “Psycho,” “The Addams Family,” “Cocoon,” “Angels and Demons” “Contact,” “A.I.,” “The Mummy Returns” and “Harry Potter.”
Tickets
New Philharmonic, the professional orchestra in residence at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) opens its 2021-2022 Season with “Halloween Spooktakular” at the McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd. on the campus of College of DuPage 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2; 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3. Tickets are $53. A limited number of $10 tickets are available for students with valid ID. For more information visit www.AtTheMAC.org or call the MAC box office at 630.942.4000.
2021-2022 Season Protocols
New Philharmonic and the McAninch Arts Center/College of DuPage value the safety and health of the audience, staff and artists, and are practicing safety guidelines set forth by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the State of Illinois. For more information visit www.AtTheMAC.org, email the Box Office at themac@cod.edu or call 630.942.4000.
About New Philharmonic
New Philharmonic, the only professional orchestra based in DuPage County, Ill., has inspired classical music enthusiasts in Chicago and the suburbs for more than four decades. It continues to thrive with the goal to give innovative treatment to both classic compositions and modern works while striving to make the music accessible to new audiences and youth through a variety of educational efforts. Today, under the direction of Kirk Muspratt, named 2018 Conductor of the Year (Professional Orchestra) by Illinois Council of Orchestras, New Philharmonic consists of more than 60 professional musicians and typically performs more than a dozen concerts a year, reaching more than 7,500 from the greater Chicago area annually. New Philharmonic was recently honored with the Illinois Council of Orchestras’ 2020 ICO Award in the category Programming of the Year.
About the MAC
McAninch Arts Center (MAC) at College of DuPage is located 25 miles west of Chicago near I-88 and I-355 at 425 Fawell Blvd. It houses three indoor performance spaces (the 780-seat proscenium Belushi Performance Hall; the 236-seat soft-thrust Playhouse Theatre; and the versatile black box Studio Theatre), an outdoor venue, the Lakeside Pavilion, plus the Cleve Carney Museum of Art and classrooms for the college’s academic programming. The MAC has presented theater, music, dance and visual art to more than 2 million people since its opening in 1986 and typically welcomes more than 100,000 patrons from the greater Chicago area to more than 230 performances each season.
The mission of the MAC is to foster enlightened educational and performance opportunities, which encourage artistic expression, establish a lasting relationship between people and art, and enrich the cultural vitality of the community. For more information about the MAC, visit www.AtTheMAC.org, @AtTheMAC on Facebook and Instagram.
Support for New Philharmonic is provided in part by the JCS Fund of the DuPage Foundation; Sullivan Taylor, Gumina & Palmer, P.C.; Bjarne R. Ullsvik; Brookdale-Glen Ellyn; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; WDCB 90.9 FM and the College of DuPage Foundation.
Established as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organization in 1967, the College of DuPage Foundation raises monetary and in-kind gifts to increase access to education and to enhance cultural opportunities for the surrounding community. For more information about the College of DuPage Foundation, visit www.foundation.cod.edu or call 630.942.2462.
Programs at the MAC are partially supported through a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.