Interview: Emily Marshall of AVATAR-THE LAST AIRBENDER LIVE IN CONCERT at Hershey Theater

Broadway World recently had the opportunity to interview Emily Marshall.  Emily is the musical director/conductor for Avatar The Last Airbender Live In Concert. The tour will land in Harshey Theater on August 20th

Emily’s recent touring credits include: THE WHO Hits Back (North America/Europe), Josh Groban'S Harmony Tour, Conductor/Music Director of SPIDERMAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE and OUR PLANET: LIVE IN CONCERT.  Below are the highlights of our discussion.  A link for tickets can be found at the conclusion of the interview.

BWW: What kind of skill and experiences does a person need to have to become a conductor?  Tell us a little bit about your own background.

EM: There's a lot of different musical techniques and skills that go into conducting. I really think about conducting as speaking my own musical language to the musicians so then I can talk to them and bring out what I need from them. They can also follow me so it's just kind of a back and forth.

My mom is a pianist and I grew up playing piano and training classically. I play a few other instruments. Then I got into music directing for musical theater and Broadway productions which is kind of a combination playing and conducting. A lot of that conducting is done from behind a keyboard, not standing in front of an orchestra waving a stick around. I had to learn how to speak to an orchestra, That's kind of the direction i took it from but i do think people come from all different arenas of the music world.

BWW :Briefly tell us a little bit about the Avatar story for readers not familiar with it.

EM: Well, Avatar it comes from the Nickelodeon cartoon and it's a beautiful, beautiful story. You have so many different themes. The audience really has their favorite characters, you know, people have grown up with these characters. So it's really cool from that we get to see which characters are people's favorites. Then what we do is we bring the music to life, so people can see the images of the characters that they grew up with.

BWW-Movies accompanied by live music has become very popular lately.  What makes Avatar such a great candidate for this treatment?

EM: The music really acts like a film score and there are big dramatic moments and then there are really touching moments.  The show we're doing is played all the way through so there's not a break in music the entire time. There'll be little portions of dialogue on top, but it really pulls the emotion out of everyone

 There's all these Asian flutes and all these specific instruments that have a specific sound,  and when you hear them , you know like that each character has his own whole thematic storyline based on their instrument. I was very surprised to hear from the creators when they were telling me about how they made this show, so I think that that shows you right there to make how important the musical element is to the piece. It really bridges it gives you the whole storyline through the music and I think whenever anyone hears the show and sees the show come away with so many emotions. I think that that's why Avatar is like such a good candidate for this type of thing.  You wouldn't necessarily think so but come see the show and you're like …”Oh yeah, this works!”

BWW-How would you recommend parents prepare children for the event if this will be their first live musical experience?

EM: So exciting to get a new generation in to see an orchestra.  You know, its like something that they can relate to and that they enjoy.

I worked on the Spider-Verse Live in Concert as well, so I remember seeing how excited people were. People left that show saying like,  “Oh, why do I want to go see the movie by itself again but it doesn't have a live orchestra?”  You know, I think it's going to be a similar thing with Avatar. The fan base is so  and the fans are so excited.

I think younger audience members will go into it and be really excited seeing the images that you know. But then what's cool is you get to see these instruments played that you hardly ever get to even see at a normal orchestra concert. There are all of these traditional Asian instruments. So it's really cool.

Then there's three percussionists in the back playing all of like the big loud drums that are exciting and very visually

BWW: Can you give us an example from the film where the visuals and the accompaniment come together in a special or memorable way?

EM: Sure. Sometime, just like, a title card coming up on the screen, then we go into the cartoon with an anime visual.  When the title card comes up so it'll say something like “Zuko” alone or something and then the audience will be like” Oh we love this part!” They  get all excited, and they're murmuring about what is about to happen. That's one of the coolest parts They keep the energy up that whole time.

Also, everyone should wait until the very end of the concert.  There is a good chance that there will be an encore.  This is a good hint to know.

BWW: Anything else that you would like our readers to know?

EM: We're all very excited because Hershey is one of our first stops on this world tour .I think anyone who knows Avatar will enjoy the show. All the creators and all of the creative teams have worked very hard to make this show.  We want to give the fans everything they wish for.

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