Get ready for a groovy night of music in February by sifting through your closet or hitting up your local vintage store in search of go-go boots, miniskirts, and all the bold patterns and colours you can find.
The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) will head back to the 1960s for a far-out concert featuring movie scores from the revolutionary decade, and is encouraging audience members to help set the mood by dressing up in their favourite styles from the era.
“It was a fun period because it seems so innocent when we compare it to what we’re in now,” PSO music director and conductor Michael Newnham tells kawarthaNOW. “It was a time of upheaval and there were all kinds of change going on, but also with the fashion and clothes, it offers up a lot of possibilities for us to put on a concert.”
For what might be the only time you’ll hear music from Psycho paired with that of The Sound of Music, “Stars of the Silver Screen” will be coming to Showplace Performance Centre with two performances, including an evening concert at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 7 and a matinee concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 8.
Just as fashion in the 1960s saw everything from Jackie Kennedy shift dresses to the fringe and flowers of the hippie era, the decade’s musical offerings were just as eclectic and fun, which will be highlighted in the program for “Stars of the Silver Screen.”
“This is a really varied program — it’s as varied as it gets because the sixties was just like that,” says Newnham.
“You’ve got everything from the jazz influence of people like John Barry, who wrote most of the music for the James Bond movies, and you’ve got pop influences coming in with Michel Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, and Henry Mancini, but there’s also the classical influence of people who came before like Bernard Herrmann, who wrote for Alfred Hitchcock.”
VIDEO: James Bond Theme (John Barry) – BBC Concert Orchestra
American composer Henry Mancini’s melodic “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) and his jazzy iconic theme from The Pink Panther (1963) will contrast the suspenseful notes of Bernard Herrmann’s masterful theme from Psycho (1960) and Lalo Schifrin’s thrilling theme from the TV series Mission: Impossible (1966).
“Stars of the Silver Screen” will also feature music from Elmer Bernstein for the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven as well as pop songs like “The Shadow of Your Smile,” composed by Johnny Mandel with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster for the 1965 romantic drama The Sandpiper, and Francis Lai’s theme from the 1970 romantic drama Love Story.
Given that the ’60s followed the “Golden Age” of musical theatre, it was also the era of musical film adaptions. For that reason, the PSO will also be exploring the iconic soundtracks of films like West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).
“There’s just a huge, huge smorgasbord of works that we’re going to be doing,” says Newnham. “The point is just to have fun.”
“Stars of the Silver Screen” will mark the PSO’s third annual film music concert, which has become a recent tradition for the orchestra due to the popularity of movie music among a wide range of audience members.
After the sold-out “Popcorn, Please!” concert in 2024 that explored the iconic scores of films including Star Wars and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, among others, the PSO expanded last year’s “Indiana Jones meets The Godfather” concert to include a second performance as a Sunday matinee to meet audience demand.
VIDEO: “Moon River” (Henry Mancini) – London FILMharmonic Orchestra
Newnham attributes the popularity of the PSO film music concerts to the fact that audiences rarely have a chance to experience movie music performed in real life by an orchestra.
“Often when you go to a movie and you hear a great film score, you’re not really thinking about the film score,” he reflects.
“You’re thinking about what’s going on on screen, and often this music will get drowned out by the action, which is how it’s written. But when you separate it out and listen to it on its own, you realize, ‘Wow, this is really, really great.'”
Newnham adds that it was in the 1960s when it became common for people to buy soundtrack records for their favourite films.
“This is where we see composers who specialized in film music, and often those were some of the best composers because this is where they would make money,” he says. “If you were really good and really fast and could really contribute something to film, you could have a fantastic career.”
“So we have these amazingly gifted composers, and their use of the orchestra is always interesting because they’re trying to get sound effects and different ideas in there that you wouldn’t necessarily find in the concert hall.”
VIDEO: Psycho Suite (Bernard Herrmann) – BBC Concert Orchestra
As for the PSO, Newnham says it’s always fun for the musicians to revisit film scores because there is more opportunity for exploration.
“Particularly in movie music, there’s a lot of emphasis on the brass players and the percussion because of the beat that you need to do,” he explains. “Often the winds have to do solos that normally wouldn’t happen, so they like that kind of thing. It’s something that they don’t get to do a lot so, when they do, it’s a fun weekend for them.”
“Stars of the Silver Screen” is promising to be even more fun than a traditional classical music concert with audience members encouraged to come dressed in their 007 tuxedos, mod-inspired beehives, bell-bottoms, and more.
According to Newnham, encouraging audience members to dress the part as they enjoy the music of “Stars of the Silver Screen” is one remedy for the cold winter months and everything that is happening in the world right now.
“Going back hundreds of years in all kinds of cultures, this is the time of year where people let their hair down,” he says. “You want to do something where people can just come out of their shells or just have fun.”
“I really believe, like most people, that the orchestra is there to serve all kinds of purposes, and this is one thing that we can contribute. I think we need this.”
VIDEO: Theme from Mission Impossible (Lalo Schifrin) – Folsom Lake Symphony
“Stars of the Silver Screen” will be preceded by a “Meet the Maestro” talk 45 minutes before each performance, where Newnham will take to the Showplace stage for an intimate chat with the audience about the program.
Tickets for the concert are $36, $50, $57, depending on the seat you choose, with student tickets costing $15 for all seats. Tickets are available in person at the Showplace Box Office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, and one hour before the concert, or online anytime at showplace.org.
For more information about the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-26 season, visit thepso.org.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-26 season.
