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SALT LAKE CITY — Fifteen years after the first Harry Potter movie opened, the film hit the big screen in Salt Lake City again.
KSL went behind the scenes as dozens of musical friends got ready to accompany the boy wizard on his inaugural visit to Hogwarts.
It was a 21st-century movie experience for Utah Symphony-goers as musicians brought John Williams' score for "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" to life in Abravanel Hall while the film played on a huge screen above them.
"The music is brought to the forefront in a way that it can't be in the movie theaters," said Paul Meecham, Utah Symphony and Opera president and CEO.
"It offers an opportunity for anyone who is in the audience to, I hope, appreciate the movie in a different way and appreciate the music in a different way," said Justin Freer, the man conducting these performances.
Freer is conductor and president of Cineconcerts, a live-to-picture company that negotiates performance contracts, supervises the creation of musicians' sheet music and makes the movies technically ready for stage. Freer is also a composer and musician who fell in love with the art of film music as a child.
Now, Freer is giving audiences around the world a new way to experience the magic of Harry Potter.
"It is such a humbling experience being able to hear and feel this amazing world that J.K. Rowling has created," he said.
Improvements in digital technology have streamlined the live-to-picture performance. But it is still a demanding art form for musicians and conductors.
"I think the single greatest challenge, not only for me on the podium, but for everyone on the stage, is to maintain synchronization with the picture," Freer said.
Utah Symphony clarinetist Erin Svoboda agreed, saying, "You have to know the score and the movie just perfectly."
Svoboda said she loves the challenge of performing Williams' Potter scores. She believes the composer's music pays tribute to every symphonic instrument.
"You can tell that John Williams knew how to write for the clarinet and every other instrument in the symphony," she said.
"We're seeing a renaissance of symphonic music in the movies," Meecham said.
And he sees a unique opportunity to bring new guests into the concert hall.
"I think these performances are part of a general strategy to broaden and diversify our offerings and reach a broader audience," he said.
That expanding audience includes the children who packed into Abravanel Hall before each of three concerts to pose and take pictures in their Potter costumes. "That's not normally your symphony-going crowd," Svoboda said.
"Hearing children laugh in the audience really makes the whole thing worth it for me," Freer said.
In fact, Freer and the Utah Symphony are delivering a bit of musical magic that movie audiences are just beginning to really hear.
If you missed one of this season's performances, you will have more opportunities to hear the symphony play Harry Potter movie scores.
The orchestra will present the other seven films in the Potter series over the next few seasons.
