Glenn Donnellan is a violinist in the NSO

In a state far, far away, Dave Teie, a talented local pianist (Katie Garton) and I played some music with Improv Little Rock for an improv of Starwars Episode 4 (the first Star Wars movie ever produced).  Comprised of a hand-full of local professional actors, the Improv company was fantastic, hysterical and campy in all the right ways of the Force.  A great blast to be part of.  We basically underscored along with the action.

Our pianist wrote out some chord progressions from Episode 4 along with the melodies of a few main themes:  John Williams assigns a musical theme to many characters in the movie.  We get to play the full orchestra versions of this movie music often in the NSO, even with John Williams conducting, but it was just as electric to do it here as a trio alongside the high-energy acting and action in front of a full-house crowd of Jedi fans.  Two personal even-higher-lights for me at the performance:  I got to do the R2D2 whistle sounds on my fiddle (who ever knew R2 could wolf-whistle?) and at the after-party Darth Vader told me he blanked out for a second in the middle of a scene when he heard me do the famous scalar turning motif that accompanies the main them - it totally overcame him, which is what that music always does to me.  I wish we could do this in every state we tour!