Jason Alexander Set to Host The Big Picture: Paramount's 100th Anniversary at the Hollywood Bowl

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and Paramount Pictures announce today that Jason Alexander will host The Big Picture: Paramount's 100th Anniversary celebrating the studio's rich cinematic and musical history at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 7:30 PM. Featuring the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, led by David Newman, Alexander is joined by three special guests, the legendary composers Michael Giacchino (Super 8, Star Trek), Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible series), and Alan Silvestri (Forrest Gump).

From the silent era of the 1920s, including Wings, the first film to receive the Best Picture Academy Award, to the 1970s epic Godfather trilogy, and the new millennium's Mission: Impossible series, The Big Picture: Paramount's 100th Anniversary takes the audience through Paramount Pictures history of movie-making, decade by decade. The evening will feature classic movie clips projected on the Hollywood Bowl's giant screens while the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, led by David Newman, performs the iconic film scores. Every decade of Paramount's 100 years will be represented, as will the music of legendary film composers including Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, and John Williams, among others.

Conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is David Newman, one of today's most accomplished creators of music for film. In his 25-year career, he has scored over 100 films, ranging from War of the Roses, Matilda, Bowfinger, and Heathers, to the more recent The Spirit, Serenity, and Alvin and The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel. Newman's music has brought to life the critically acclaimed dramas Brokedown Palace and Hoffa; top-grossing comedies Norbit, Scooby-Doo, Galaxy Quest, The Nutty Professor, The Flintstones, Throw Mama From the Train; and award-winning animated films Ice Age, The Brave Little Toaster and Anastasia. The recipient of top honors from the music and motion picture industries, he holds an Academy Award nomination for his score to the animated feature, Anastasia, and was the first composer to have his piece, 1001 Nights, performed in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's FILMHARMONIC Series, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Passionate about nurturing the next generation of musicians, Newman serves as President of the Board of the American Youth Symphony, a forty-three year-old pre-professional orchestra based in Los Angeles, where he launched the three-year "Jerry Goldsmith Project." In 2007 he wrote the children's melodrama "Yoko and the Tooth Fairy" for Crossroads School in Santa Monica, CA, and in 2010 he served on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival in the Film Scoring Program. When his schedule permits, he visits Los Angeles area high schools to speak about film scoring and mentor young composers. Newman is part of a film music composer dynasty that includes his late father, nine-time Oscar winning composer Alfred, his cousin Randy Newman, his uncles Emil and Lionel Newman, and his siblings Thomas and Maria Newman.

The persona of George Costanza on NBC's Seinfeld garnered Jason Alexander six Emmy and four Golden Globe nominations, an American Television Award, and two American Comedy Awards. The Screen Actors Guild knighted him Best Actor in a Comedy Series and TV Guide readers voted him among the ten greatest television characters of all time. Beyond Seinfeld, Alexander's career is one that defines diversity. His Broadway debut came in the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Alexander starred on Broadway five times, eventually hired to write the libretto for Jerome Robbins' Broadway, in which he also played 14 different characters and which won him the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Tony Awards. Los Angeles audiences have enjoyed his many stage performances here, most notably his acclaimed run alongside Martin Short in Mel Brooks' The Producers. This past summer, The Actors Fund honored Jason with the Julie Harris Award for Lifetime Achievement. In film, his credits include Pretty Woman, Jacob's Ladder, Dunston Checks In, Love, Valor, Compassion, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Shallow Hal, Hachi, and the upcoming Lucky Stiff. Notable TV projects include Bye Bye Birdie and A Christmas Carol. He directs for both film and TV, with several features and episodes of Seinfeld, Everybody Hates Chris, Criminal Minds, Franklin and Bash, and Mike and Molly to his credit. He has also directed numerous stage productions in L.A., many for the Reprise Theatre Company, for which he serves as Artistic Director. When not engaged in the above, Jason works as a noted producer, teacher, children's author, magician, poker star, activist and traveling comic - often in his persona of Donny Clay, America's 4th Leading Motivational Speaker.

Michael Giacchino began his filmmaking career at the age of 10 in his backyard in Edgewater Park, New Jersey, and has been making movies ever since. After attending the School for Visual Arts in NYC, he landed a marketing job at Disney. At night, he began studies in music composition first at Juilliard, and then at UCLA. When he became a producer in Disney's fledgling Interactive Division, it afforded Michael the opportunity to hire himself to write music for video games. It was Michael's work in video game orchestration that grabbed the attention of JJ Abrams, who contacted him about the possibility of writing the score for Alias. They met, he got the job, and a relationship was born that would include the groundbreaking series Lost, for which Michael earned an Emmy. Michael's feature film composing breakthrough was with The Incredibles. He has since gone on to score Ratatouille, The Family Stone, Cars 2, John Carter, Monte Carlo, Sky High, 50/50, and for Paramount Pictures, Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, Super 8, and Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol. His score for the Pixar hit Up earned him all of the top prizes in 2010, including the Oscar, the Golden Globe, the BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics' Choice Award and two Grammy Awards. Michael sits on the Advisory Board of Education Through Music Los Angeles.

Lalo Schifrin is a true Renaissance man. As a pianist, composer and conductor, he is equally at home conducting a symphony orchestra, performing at an international jazz festival, scoring a film or television show, or creating works for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and even The Sultan of Oman. His music is a synthesis of traditional and twentieth-century techniques, and his early love for jazz and rhythm are strong attributes of his style. "Invocations," "Concerto for Double Bass," "Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2," "Pulsations," "Tropicos," "La Nouvelle Orleans," and "Resonances" are examples of this tendency to juxtapose universal thoughts with a kind of elaborated primitivism. In the classical composition field, Schifrin has more than 60 works, and is currently composing a triple concerto to be premiered in 2013. He has written more than 150 scores for films and television. Among the classic scores are Mission Impossible, Mannix, The Fox, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, The Cincinnati Kid and Amityville Horror. Recent film scores include Tango, the Rush Hour trilogy, Bringing Down The House, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, After the Sunset, and Abominable. He has received many international awards and honors; and will be honored by the City of Vienna with a Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2012. His accolades have included six Oscar Nominations and twenty-three Grammy Nominations with five Grammy wins.

In over thirty years as a film composer, Alan Silvestri has blazed an innovative trail with his exciting and melodic scores, winning the applause of Hollywood and movie audiences the world over. Silvestri would score a number of small films before breaking through as a television composer on the hit series CHiPs. His talent would particularly impress Robert Zemeckis, who gave the composer his feature film breakthrough with Romancing the Stone. From there, a successful collaboration began that would include: the Back to the Future franchise, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Oscar-winning Best Picture Forrest Gump (which also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Score), Contact, What Lies Beneath, Castaway (Grammy Award winner for Best Instrumental Composition), The Polar Express (whose song "Believe," co-written with Glen Ballard, won a Grammy Award and received an Academy Award nomination), Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, and most recently, Flight which lands in theatres on November 2, 2012. Through the years with over 100 scores, Alan has distinguished himself in many genres, including thrilling suspense films such as Predator, The Abyss, Identity, and G.I. Joe- The Rise of Cobra; galloping westerns such as Young Guns 2 and The Quick and the Dead; youthful fantasies such as Stuart Little, Lilo and Stitch, Night at the Museum, Captain America, and The Avengers; rollicking comedies such as Father of the Bride, The Parent Trap, and What Women Want; and heartfelt dramas such as The Perez Family and Maid in Manhattan. It is clear, whether composing orchestral action, or tender melodies, Alan Silvestri's work has always been identifiable by its keen sense of melody and theme.

One of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, with a seating capacity of nearly 18,000, the HOLLYWOOD BOWL has been the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since its official opening in 1922, and is home to the best and brightest in all genres of music. It remains one of the best deals in Los Angeles; to this day, $1 buys a seat at the top of the Bowl for many of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concerts. The venue offers something for everyone, from its sizzling summer evening concerts to the daytime summer arts festival for children, "SummerSounds: Music for Kids at the Hollywood Bowl," now in its 43rd season. In February 2012, the Hollywood Bowl was named Best Major Outdoor Concert Venue for the eighth year in a row at the 23rd Annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards. The Hollywood Bowl has become synonymous with summer in Southern California. www.HollywoodBowl.com

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