The word “glorious,” when used in music, is usually reserved for such things as a performance of Handel’s Messiah or Verdi’s Aida, and indeed they are glorious. But the difference between those performances labeled glorious and this performance by the American Youth Symphony was that not only was the music glorious, but the featured composer for the evening was there conducting his own award-winning compositions with the crème de la crème of our local young musicians. Now that’s glorious!

The honoree for this evening was Alan Silvestri, an award-winning film composer for over thirty years, known for his innovative, melodic, and exciting scores that are familiar to all film- and concert-goers alike. For this evening’s Gala, there was the addition of monitors around the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion showing film clips that matched the music being performed.

The audience seemed as eager as I was for the program to begin. It was a very young audience, comprised of what seemed to be a lot of parents, siblings, and friends, besides AYS sponsors. As I looked at the youthful orchestra and so many of their peers in the audience, all in their “Sunday best,” I thought of that line from the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” from Alice Through the Looking Glass:

“All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat—“

I can only describe the atmosphere as having the fresh scent of youthful expectancy.

The American Youth Symphony is just that –- a full symphony orchestra comprised of musicians from ages 15 to 25 who perform with dedication to their music being almost palpable. The AYS provides the arena to make this happen with a broad scope that also involves the community. Their purpose is to train gifted young musicians for professional careers in symphony orchestras, to make music available to all segments of the community through admission-free concerts, and to foster music appreciation and provide instruments to children attending public schools through a Music Outreach Program.

The evening’s program began with Mr. Silvestri coming on stage and acknowledging the orchestra, and then exchanging knowing smiles with them in what seemed like a special kind of camaraderie. As the music began, a film clip appeared above the stage on the large screen which is usually reserved for supertitles during an opera. I sat smugly thinking that whoever said you don’t get a second chance was really wrong, in this instance. All the wonderful movies and their music that I’ve missed, and now not only a full symphony orchestra of some of our most talented young musicians, the composer/conductor and the supporting film clips as well. Was I lucky or what?

Starting with Back to the Future (1985) was a perfect way to begin, since it was Silvestri’s first film of many in collaboration with Robert Zemeckis. This first film debuted with the heroic theme that follows our hero, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), through all three films, with the second (1989) requiring a bit of pathos, and the third (1990) which sent McFly back to 1885 which, of course, required music appropriate for the wide-open spaces of a Western. Hearing the music from Back to the Future sent me back to Netflix so I could see and hear all that I’d missed.

What Lies Beneath (2000), Zemeckis’s suspense thriller, required Mr. Silvestri to call upon the resources of the orchestra to further help conjure up a “pervasive feeling of menace and dread, an eerie solitude, and the savage sounds of madness.” Watching him conduct this was watching the composer physically instill his own emotions into his music to evoke these foreign feelings in the concert hall environment.

From there, we went to a clarinet, snare drum, and oom-pah-pah feeling he created for that wonderfully silly movie, Mousehunt. Silvestri’s music sets the tone for the entire movie with a “Scherzo for Mischievous Mouse.”

Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s (1988) music was next. This required writing music for a mix of live-action and animation which ended up winning four Academy Awards. The music was reminiscent of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, with each of the characters having its own recognizable theme: that smoky, sexy saxophone and keyboards for Jessica Rabbit (“I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way”), and the jazzy, bad-guy music for Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins). The orchestra was augmented for this segment by some studio musician buddies of Silvestri’s. It was perfect. There were these casual guys coming out and playing with this formal orchestra and all playing music for the Looney Toon guys that lived in Toontown in the movie.

Next we explored the land of Beowulf through music. With this 8th century warrior who battles evil through his extreme goodness, Silvestri created a heroic mood using powerful brass and percussion.

From heroism supported by scores of warriors, we were taken to the heroic solitude of Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away (2000). Silvestri is able to convey a certain optimism, even though there is the melancholy feeling of complete isolation. The main theme is first heard as Hanks’s character is able to surmount what are seemingly insurmountable odds to escape his island home. Again, Silvestri’s composition was Grammy Award-winning.

Polar Express, the children’s book that is the story of a magical train ride on Christmas Eve which takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus, has soaring, magical music that such a train ride deserves. With the music as an integral part of this project and the song “Believe” sung by Josh Groban, there was another Grammy Award.

Throughout the evening, Mr. Silvestri explained the story behind each of the film scores he’d written, but his description of how the theme to Forrest Gump came about described the creation of something very special and ephemeral. The director, Bob Zemeckis, pantomimed for Silvestri how this wafting feather would open the movie to lead us on Forrest Gump’s journey, and the music should follow appropriately. It does. We sat, for the next eight minutes, mesmerized by the “feather theme” overture which was accompanied by the on-screen montage of Forrest’s various conquests which he achieved with such simplistic dignity. This heartfelt finishing touch to the evening created that special moment that audiences look forward to but don’t always experience.

It’s that brief, quiet moment of the audience’s intense involvement and then the burst of enthusiastic applause that reflects the appreciation of the gift of a performance that has just been given. This gift-giving was mutual. We had been given a one-of-a-kind musical experience by the American Youth Symphony and Mr. Silvestri, and they in turn had gladly been given our awe and respect.