John Williams at the Hollywood Bowl

[Mandalorian Candidat]

For as long as I can remember, John Williams has done at least one show at the Hollywood Bowl every summer. He often plays pieces from SW as well as from his other movie soundtracks. In 1997, he played an entire show dedicated to SW music, complete with special effects, fireworks, and Chewie, DV, Stormtroopers and the like running around during the show. In 1999 he played music from the EP1 soundtrack. Last year he didn't play any SW music, but had several selections from Superman, ET, AI, Hook, and other movies.

Alas, it appears that he will be taking a break this year. :( I just checked the well-booked summer schedule for the venue and noticed his glaring omission from the calendar. It's possible he may be doing a show elsewhere in the LA area, or even in NY, but for some reason I really doubt it.

Checking the Bowl's schedule, there is a show on Sep 20 (Friday) called "The Big Picture" where they may play the SW Theme since it's dedicated to Oscar-winning movie scores. The description is as follows:

It’s our annual Movie Night at the Bowl as the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra plays live while unforgettable movie scenes are projected on the Bowl's big screen. This year we join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in celebrating Oscar's 75th birthday.

As of today there is no set program so who knows...

BTW, the Bowl is scheduling two shows in August where they will be playing new music with narrative by Howard Shore inspired by the LOTR soundtrack.
CLICK HERE (http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/series/performance_detail.cfm?id=900&back=%2Fcalendar%2Fcalendar%5Fframeset%2Ecfm%3Fmon th%3D8%26year%3D2002%26left%5Fmonths%3D2%26mode%3D cal%26filter%3D&backTarget=%5Ftop) for details.

If you do have any info on upcoming John Williams concerts, please post it here or in the SSG news section.

[Mandalorian Candidat]

OK, hold that thought. Right after posting this thread I thought about checking on Yahoo. I found what looks like the official John Williams web site (http://www.johnwilliams.org/index.html), which *surprise* indicates the following:

In May, Williams leads concerts with the Boston Pops that will include music from Attack of the Clones and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, as well as Call of the Champions.* This summer he leads two programs with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival and three performances at the Hollywood Bowl...

In checking his performance calendar it indicates that he is conducting the LA Philharmonic for the big 4th of July shows (July 2-4). The tickets go on sale starting May 4, but as of today the schedule has yet to be announced. Since it's a 4th of July show it is likely he will not play anything from EP2, let alone anything other than patriotic music. So, unless you are really looking forward to hearing "Stars and Stripes Forever" directed by the Maestro, your best bet to hear live EP2 music is at the Boston Pops concert on May 28 and 29 or at the Cleveland Blossom Festival on July 28. There are also many other dates where it seems he'll be playing his own music at other locations, so check out his web site if you're interested.