When Marc Stevens was five or six years old, he visited a cousin's house over the Christmas holidays in southeast England. Stevens' family did not own a television, so he was understandably intrigued when his cousin introduced him to the 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope, which happened to be airing on British TV at the time. The future president and CEO of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra was particularly enthralled by the music by composer John Williams as he watched the opening scene of Darth Vader boarding a captured rebel vessel littered with dead bodies.
A Lifelong Musical Influence
“On YouTube you can find versions of these scenes without the music, with the music stripped out,” says Stevens. “They just feel so flat and weird, and you realize what a character is playing to carry the story along and to stimulate your feelings. It would have been the first time that, unawares, I would have been listening to an orchestra.” While it may be a bit of a stretch to say that early exposure to that iconic score led Stevens to a career in orchestras, it is safe to say it is one of many core memories involving music that helped shape his identity and eventual career.
Full Circle Moment with the Calgary Phil
So there is always a bit of a full-circle feel whenever the Calgary Phil offers Star Wars-themed performances. On May 15 and 16, the orchestra will perform Williams' Oscar-nominated score at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium while screening 1983's Return of the Jedi — the one with Jabba the Hutt and the Ewoks — as a live-to-film experience led by American conductor Anthony Parnther, whose connection to the Star Wars universe includes leading the scoring sessions for the Emmy-winning Star Wars series The Mandalorian.
Stevens' Personal Connection to Star Wars
Stevens' connection to Star Wars goes beyond being a fan. Sixteen years before joining Calgary Phil as president and CEO, he was the concerts and recordings manager for the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, he co-ordinated sessions for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. He was at Abbey Road Studios in London when the orchestra joined Williams and Star Wars creator George Lucas to record the score. The orchestra was constantly being pitched film score jobs. Sometimes Stevens could make them work, sometimes he could not. But Star Wars was different. The London Symphony Orchestra had recorded the scores for the previous five films in the canon, starting in 1976 with the original music that had captivated young Stevens at his cousin's house 25 years earlier. Both Williams and Lucas were adamant about using the orchestra for Sith, which was the final Star Wars film until Lucas relaunched the series in 2015.
Behind the Scenes at Abbey Road
“This really had to work in our schedule,” says Stevens. “You would move mountains to make it happen. With many projects, you are working them in and around all the other things the LSO is doing. The LSO is on tour 15 to 20 times a year. That can be two weeks in Japan or one night in Barcelona, but it's a very complex schedule. So trying to keep that flexible and clear for a film like that was a complex business, but because it was such an important part of the orchestra's heritage and history and fame, it was a different level of priority. It wasn't just another film that maybe we could do and maybe we can't. This one really had to happen.”
