David Newman, who has written scores for over 110 films and arranged Leonard Bernstein’s score for Steven Spielberg’s 2022 Academy Award-winning film, West Side Story, this week is conducting two “The Art of the Score” programs with the New York Philharmonic.
The first, taking place tonight, will be the orchestra’s spring gala, featuring scenes from Disney’s Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, with live accompaniment by the Philharmonic. The second program will present Spielberg’s and George Lukas’ Raiders of the Lost Ark and feature the New York premiere of John Williams’ complete score for the film, also performed by the orchestra. This program will be offered Friday and Saturday nights, April 22 and 23. The first in Spielberg’s and Lukas’ Indiana Jones franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in June 1981.
The son of nine-time Academy Award-winning composer Alfred Newman, Newman is the composer of the score of the Netflix series, “Green Eggs and Ham,” and of scores of films including War of the Roses, Heathers, Night School, Serenity and Anastasia; he received an Academy Award nomination for his score for the last.
He also conducts top orchestras worldwide, including that of his hometown, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and the orchestras in Philadelphia and Cleveland. In 2017 he conducted the world premiere of the Star Wars Film Concert Series with the New York Philharmonic.
In an interview this week, he said he “loves” the New York Philharmonic, noting it is “one of the orchestras I work with the most beside the Los Angeles Philharmonic. They’re really a special group, such a great combination of European historical playing and understanding of all styles.”
Looking back at his work on West Side Story, he called it an ”amazing experience” for which he created arrangements, edited and "stitched stuff together.”
The film was shot in 2019 and edited later. The New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic perform on its soundtrack, both conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the latter.
Newman has been conducting various orchestras in live concerts since last summer, starting at the Hollywood Bowl, and said he is finding that “audiences are very glad to be back, they’re enthusiastic.”
