LORD OF THE RINGS Concert Plays Radio City Music Hall Through 10/9

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, will be presented live to film at Radio City Music Hall for two performances only, on Friday, October 8th and Saturday, October 9th, 2010 at 7:30PM. Following the success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring concert last October, the Academy Award®-nominated film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers gets the same treatment at the world-famous Radio City Music Hall. Beneath an immense 60-foot screen, Howard Shore's Grammy®-winning complete original score will be performed live to Peter Jackson's award-winning epic. www.TheRadioCityLOTRconcert.com

The music of Middle-earth will be brought to life by 300 musicians Switzerland's 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, The Grammy Award ® - winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, The award-winning Dessoff Symphonic Choir and renowned soprano Kaitlyn Lusk, all under the direction of celebrated Maestro Ludwig Wicki.

Last fall, over 10,000 people filled Radio City for The Fellowship of the Ring shows. The New York Times said "the music of Middle-earth soared at Radio City Music Hall," while Entertainment Weekly said "it was a terrific night at the theater...Too bad we've got to wait until Oct. 9, 2010 to see The Two Towers in the same fashion."

For tickets, please visit www.ticketmaster.com or call (866) 858-0008. Tickets range from $59.00 - $150.00.

"This new presentation of cinematic image and music came about as the process of releasing The Complete LOTR Recordings was coming to an end," says Howard Shore. "After three years of working with all of the original recordings I had a real interest in hearing the complete score performed live. From the very first time I sat in the audience watching and listening, I felt that I was seeing the music with more clarity and hearing the image in an entirely new way. It became a completely new experience. Maestro Ludwig Wicki is the foremost conductor of this score-to-film concert. His precision, detail and supreme musicianship will be on display at Radio City. I look forward to seeing you there."

Doug Adams, musicologist and author of book Music of The Lord of the Rings Films said, "Howard Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings stands proudly as one of the most intricate and moving efforts in the history of the medium. The score-to-film performances create a fully immersive experience - a night of dramatic theater, cinematic spectacle and symphonic grandeur that honor the incomparable imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien. Radio City Music Hall, with its opulence and history, was the perfect venue for The Fellowship of the Ring and we are thrilled about The Two Towers. This will be a weekend like none other."

Carpentier and Alfred Music Publishing will release of The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films, a comprehensive account of Howard Shore's score for the trilogy, on October 5th, which coincides with The Radio City event.. The culmination of almost a decade of writing and research, The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films is an unprecedented look at Howard Shore's Academy Award®-winning score, with extensive music examples, original manuscript scores, a rarities CD, and glimpses into the creative process from the composer, himself.

ABOUT THE FILM
Released on December 18, 2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is the second installment in Peter Jackson's fantasy adventure film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Set in Middle-earth, the story picks up with Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) trekking to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power while Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) search for the orc-captured Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd). All along, nefarious wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) awaits the Fellowship members at the Orthanc Tower in Isengard. Highly acclaimed by critics and fans alike, the film earned over $925 million worldwide, making it one of the highest grossing films of the year in the U.S. and worldwide. The film remains one of the top-10 highest-grossing worldwide films of all time. It won two Academy Awards®, a Grammy® Award and three BAFTAs, and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars®, Golden Globes®, and BAFTA Awards.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Howard Shore (Composer) is among today's most respected, honored, and active composers and music conductors. His work with Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings trilogy stands as his most towering achievement to date, earning him three Academy Awards®. He has also been awarded four Grammys® and three Golden Globes. Shore was one of the original creators of Saturday Night Live where he served as the music director from 1975 to 1980. At the same time, he began collaborating with David Cronenberg, and has scored 12 of the director's films, including The Fly, Dead Ringers, Crash, Naked Lunch and Eastern Promises for which he was honored with a Genie Award. Shore continues to distinguish himself with a wide range of projects, from Martin Scorsese's The Departed, The Aviator, and Gangs of New York, Twilight Saga: Eclipse, to Ed Wood, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Mrs. Doubtfire. Shore's music has been performed in concerts throughout the world. In 2003, Shore conducted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings Symphony in Wellington, New Zealand. Since then, the work has had over 140 performances by the world's most prestigious orchestras. In 2008, Howard Shore's opera of The Fly premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at The Los Angeles Opera. Other recent works include Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia and a piano concerto in 2010 for Lang Lang. He is currently working on his second opera and looks forward to a return to Middle-earth with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Shore received the Career Achievement for Music Composition Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and New York Chapter's Recording Academy Honors, ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award and the Frederick Loewe Award. He holds honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music and York University and he is an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters.
Ludwig Wicki (Conductor) began his career as a member of the Lucerne Symphony and Opera Orchestra and founder of the San Marco Brass and the Philharmonic Brass Quintet. After studying choral conducting with the music director of the world-renowned Dresdner Kreuzchores in Germany, Wicki became a permanent member of the Schola Romanum Luzernsis under the direction of Pater Roman Bannwart. Wicki then went on to become the music director at the Palace Chapel of Lucerne where he led the choir in Georgian chants and performances of Bach, Handel, Monteverdi and Palestrina, as well as the orchestra in works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and more. He inaugurated a Renaissance ensemble, Il Dolcimelo, and created the concert series Treffpunkt Haydn. In 1999, he founded the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, which has collaborated with internationally-renowned composers including Howard Shore, Randy Newman and Martin Böttcher. In 2007, the city of Lucerne presented Maestro Wicki with a Special Achievement Award for his contribution to the city's cultural life.
Film music is the credo and passion of the Lucerne-based 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, led by Artistic Director Ludwig Wicki. The group has garnered wide acclaim for projects such as James Bond in Concert, Italian Film Music: An Hommage to Ennio Morricone and Maurice Jarre and An Evening with Randy Newman. In 2007, the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra entered into a partnership with Academy Award®-winner Howard Shore and has performed his complete score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King live to the epic motion picture. The complete trilogy will be performed next year at the KKL in Luzerne and in Munich.

The Dessoff Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Chris Shepard, traces its roots back to 1924. An award-winning independent chorus, Dessoff has established a reputation for pioneering performances of choral works from the Renaissance era through the 21st century. In addition to presenting its own concert series each season, the choir has performed in numerous New York, American and world premieres by composers such as Philip Glass, Tan Dun and Sir John Tavener and collaborated with major ensembles and orchestras. Appearances have also ranged from collaborations with the Kronos Quartet and Mark Morris Dance Group to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and The New York Philharmonic as well as Lorin Maazel's final performance with the Philharmonic. Dessoff's second CD "Glories on Glories" is also available for digital download from multiple online retailers.

The Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BYC), now in its 19th season, is one of the country's leading children's choruses and is the ensemble of choice for internationally renowned orchestras and artists. Under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director Dianne Berkun, BYC has an international reputation for programmatic and artistic excellence. The Chorus studies and performs a wide range of music-classical and non-classical-and has an active commissioning program to develop new works across a variety of genres. The Chorus has performed with renowned artists such as Elton John, Lou Reed and Alicia Keys, and has performed under the batons of Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, Leon Botstein, and many others. In 2002, BYC debuted with the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel in On the Transmigration of Souls, for which the Chorus won a Grammy Award. The Chorus receives its training from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy (BYCA)--a performance-based vocal music education program serving over 300 students annually in six ensembles. The Chorus draws students from all over the city and reflects the broad diversity of the Metropolitan area.

Kaitlyn Lusk made her major orchestral singing debut with the Baltimore Symphony in 2003 at the age of 14 and has since been sought after for solo appearances with many of the nation's leading orchestras. Since the fall of 2004, Kaitlyn has been the featured vocal soloist in Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings Symphony. She has performed this role with over 25 orchestras in the United States and Canada from the Philadelphia Orchestra to the San Francisco Symphony, and from the Houston Symphony to the Minnesota Orchestra. She has performed with conductors including Keith Lockhart, Alexander Mickelthwate, Allaistar Willis, Stuart Malina, Nicolas Palmer, Markus Huber. In January 2007, Kaitlyn made her European debut with Maestro John Mauceri and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. In the summer of 2007, as part of an encore performance of The Lord of the Rings Symphony with the Cleveland Orchestra, she once again performed with Howard Shore, who in 2005 invited Kaitlyn to perform the Academy Award®-winning song as part of the Grammy® Honors of Howard Shore in New York City. In addition to her live performances, Kaitlyn's first studio album, No Looking Back, features some of the top musicians and songwriters in the industry today and was produced by the award-winning composer and arranger, Kim Scharnberg.
This event is presented by CAMI Music in partnership with New York Comic Con. Swiss International Air Lines is the official sponsor.