Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417
AMHERST, Mass.—The Amherst College Orchestra, directed by Mark Lane Swanson, will perform a two-act program of popular music on Saturday, April 9, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall at Amherst College. The concert is free and open to the public.
The orchestra will play selections from composer John Williams's soundtracks for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and Harry Potter, as well as selections from the James Bond movies, Spiderman and Casablanca. The orchestra will also perform music from the filmed versions of the Broadway musicals that have won the Academy Award for best picture, including Oliver!, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Chicago. The program will conclude with a series of love ballads and Disney songs, many of which have won the Academy Award for best song, sung by Amherst students Kate Stayman-London '05, Julia Fox '06, Alex Brewer '06, Alison Wahl '08 and Daniel Curtis '08, among others.
The Amherst College Orchestra consists of 70 current students at Amherst College and as many as 10 additional students from Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It is one of the only liberal arts college orchestras comprised entirely of students and performs a repertoire that ranges from the Baroque to the twentieth century.
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