Last night my husband and I attended the 50th Anniversary Film Release of West Side with a special screening and live performance of the score at Avery Fisher Hall NYC http://bit.ly/NYPHL
The NY Philharmonic Orchestra performed all the music keeping time with a live presentation of the original movie. Academy Award nominee David Newman was the conductor.
Russ Tamblyn/ Riff and George Chakiris/ Bernardo were there and my husband looked like the cat that swallowed the canary! My husband played Riff in College and has played Piano for the show several times so this indeed was very special to him.
I also had the pleasure of sitting next to and chatting with a world famous Opera Conductor who studied under Leonard Bernstein http://www.leonardbernstein.com/ He was kind enough to recant the history of West Side Story as well as vividly describing its Premeire that he attended Oct 1961 http://nyti.ms/WestSideSTRY
The New York Philharmonic Orchestra holds a special place in mine and my husband's heart. http://nyphil.org/about/
Our friend Jerome A. Ashby was the Philharmonic's Associate Principal Horn and Principal Wagner Tuba. Jerome had joined the Orchestra in 1979; his last performance with the Philharmonic was on December 1, 2007.
http://nyphil.org/about/jeromeAshby.cfm
http://nyphil.org/about/jeromeAshby.cfm
We will forever remember the kindness and love that was expressed from The New York Philharmonic while Jerome was battling cancer.
It was a remarkable evening with talent that exceeds any words I can write.
Congratulations to The New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor David Newman!
