The Harry Potter Film Concert Series Returns, Nature is Healing

It’s officially the start of September, which means Hogwarts students are returning to school, pumpkin spice is returning to coffee houses, and The Harry Potter Film Concert Series returns September 17th! Since 2016, concert venues around the globe have played host to a variety of iconic films performed with a live symphony orchestra, all produced by CineConcerts.

I recently had the pleasure to speak with Justin Freer – a conductor, composer, and the founder/president of CineConcerts.  We discussed the return and future of these exciting events that have performed in 48 countries, with over 1600 performances so far.

I have personally attended the first five of the Harry Potter films at the Hollywood Bowl, and it has become a tradition for my friends and I to spend the night with thousands of fellow fans, all appreciating the music and the films together. It is an atmosphere unlike any other event where you get to see and hear what makes each scene or character so iconic and memorable. Celebrating this all from within a massive group of fans, all cheering or gasping at their favorite scenes is entirely unique. Justin states that “sometimes we get lost as movie goers in what great music is doing, and what it does for film when the two are well-married together.” The idea of these concerts is to present a new format through the eyes of the music for a better appreciation of every element.

In 2020 at the start of the pandemic, all concerts were postponed globally. CineConcerts, along with every other event and many forms of entertainment, began to face countless challenges.  “Some of the most painful moments these last 18 months have resulted from being unable to make those in-person connections. And it’s difficult to stand idly by unable to perform, which is very challenging.” After months of video streams and a strictly online presence, Justin and the CineConcerts team are excited to bring that real world connection back to life.

Whether you have a deep love of music, movies, or just the Harry Potter films, the experience to see the Harry Potter Film Concert Series is 100% worth attending. As Justin says, “we have a tendency to forget that there is a human being behind the creation of these scores.” The goal of CineConcerts is to get the audience members to feel inspired, and appreciate music in a new way.

The next Harry Potter film in the series returns to the Hollywood Bowl September 17^th, 2021. This performance will be performed in the outdoor amphitheater of the Bowl where extra safety precautions, like hand sanitizer stations, reduced contact ticketing, hourly cleaning, and mobile ordering are being put in place to help against COVID-19. Tickets to attend Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince™️ in Concert can be found here.

Will you be attending the next Harry Potter Film Concert Series when it arrives in your area? Keep an eye on the website here for future dates and locations.

You can read the full interview below:

1.Go ahead and tell me a bit about how this all started and how CineConcerts came together back in 2016?

I can’t believe it was that long ago. Our conversations with the studio and the Wizarding World franchise team were extensive as everyone involved wanted to ensure the end product was perfect! Everyone knew our  idea was born out of a love and a desire to share these films and their music scores in the purest way possible. 

Given these are concerts, the music is the principal anchor for all this. Still to this day, there are a fairly decent amount of people out there in the world that, not only still have not seen a Harry Potter film concert before, but also a film concert of any kind. It’s certainly far less a number than it was six years ago, 10 years ago, when CineConcerts was founded, but nonetheless there are the uninitiated out there. 

One thing that remains true to this day, whether or not it’s somebody who’s seen Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone for the first time, or it’s the fourth time, or it’s the first time they’ve ever seen a live to film picture event in a concert hall or in a symphonic hall, is the amazing reaction that they have, i.e. ‘I didn’t realize just how powerful music is in film’, or ‘how powerful that particular score was in that particular film’. And I think we get lost as movie goers in what great music is doing and what it does for film when it’s married well to the picture. We get lost in it, and we get lost for a good reason, because it’s doing its job. When you don’t get lost in it, you know something’s wrong, in my opinion.

Oftentimes people forget that one of the reasons why we perhaps are afraid of Voldemort, is because of the way that John Williams composes the music, and perhaps our fanciful connection to Harry’s first flight in a Quidditch match, just maybe has something to do with that particular scene’s music score. When people make those connections, like for example, realizing the French Horn is that which is suggesting fear or an ominous quality, those connections can often result in a creative lightbulb moment. Or maybe it’s the celesta that makes people feel so fanciful. That’s a really cool thing to be a part of as the producer, as a conductor, as an avid lover of film music.

So it was really my geeky fanboy kid in a candy shop mentality that really wanted to do this in the beginning. And I’m so happy that Warner Bros. Global Themed Entertainment have been so supportive over the years while we continue to share this wonderful magic with people around the world.

2. What is it actually like working with some of the greatest composers of our generation? Because you mentioned John Williams, obviously, a legend!

Well, every time I open the score, whether or not it’s in my own private studio, or it’s on the podium working with the orchestra, it is a reminder of instant humility. Participating, in some small way, inside each of these composer’s creative genius, while being able to share that genius with the world in a way that consistently reminds folks just how good these guys really are at their jobs, is a real pleasure. I think that we have a tendency to forget that there is a human being behind the creation of these scores. And particularly, in the case of a man like John Williams, I think we oftentimes (and unknowingly) take him for granted, because he is at such a high level of artisanship. It’s like, there goes Maestro John again, Jurassic Park. Well, there he goes again, ET, and we love Harry Potter, obviously. Try living at that level of brilliance for 50-60 years, right? He’s an anomaly and we all admire him. Moving through the franchise, Patrick Doyle is such a great writer, well trained, and he’s such a wonderful human being. And he so quickly solves the problems on the screen through very quick and intuitive musical solutions. Nick Hooper brings his own amazing, unique sound. It’s so different from Patrick and from John Williams. And then ultimately, Alexandre Desplat. We hear his music in films seven and eight. The Wizarding World musical tradition is very humbling, and continues to be a kid in a candy store moment for me to be able to be on the podium for these.

3. For you, what is the most exciting location that you performed in?

Well, there are obvious choke points that make sense in the tradition of the Wizarding World, London is one of those obvious choke points. But wherever I go, wherever the staff goes, wherever the patronage happens to be, it’s really interesting to see what is shared amongst audiences in LA versus Boston, versus Shanghai versus London, etc. 

The differences usually come down to simple things like cultural differences – the types of things they laugh at. Sometimes it is the very witty, dry British humor…of course, when you’re in Royal Albert Hall, people are rolling in the aisles but there may be slightly different reactions in Shanghai. The most common shared item across all cities globally is being transported into a world that you are not released from until the show is over.

My favorite part of all of this is knowing that, just hopefully, there are a few people in the hall that we’ve further inspired to go pay attention to music in a different way. Or perhaps they want to be filmmakers now because of what they heard in the hall. They want to be an instrumentalist. Maybe they want to be a singer. Or maybe it’s something as simple as finding a new life appreciation for music. And if we can make those connections, then I hope we’ve done our job to some degree because that ultimately is what music performance is about.

If we don’t have our patronage then music exists in a vacuum. And that’s not a world that I want to live in, which is why this has been, at least for me personally, and I can speak on behalf of many of my colleagues around the world, some of the most painful moments of our lives the last 18 months. We have been unable to make those connections.

4. Performers and venues continue to struggle in the world. But as far as CineConcerts, were you able to do anything to work with artists during lockdown, and how many of the previous performers were able to be brought back?

We attempted to do some really fun things, we got in front of it, just to speak specifically to the Harry Potter franchise. And we came up with a lot of fun activities that allowed musicians at their local orchestras to record truncated versions and reduced orchestration versions of some of the more well-known cues…perhaps some of them dialed in and did a collective  Zoom or Google Meet concerts. So we did do what we could to keep what we love and admire in the forefront of people’s minds and ears, but I will be the first to admit it was not easy.

Even when we were in the middle of that last year, I think when we were at the peak of people accepting interesting ideas like that, because they had to, there was no live version of these events…there was still that element of, ‘it’s still digital’, and ‘it’s still over Zoom’. And that should be expected. And I’m happy that people had that reaction to some degree, because that reinforces how they feel about the importance of live connection, and humans being in the same room. This reinforces that we still have that human spirit. And that’s what we’re so excited to get back to this year.

5. With the many cultures and locations that you bring these films to, is there any room for improvisation or modification to create new experiences, depending on the audience?

We present everything as consistently as we can across all cultures and locations. People experiencing a concert at the Royal Albert Hall should have the same experience if they were at the Shanghai Opera House, for example. That is how we approach everything we do.

As far as taking something that’s well known globally, and making it modular, depending on where you go, that’s something I have kind of played with over the years. At one point, we were discussing a concept like that with a very well-known European football outfit, and never really went anywhere. But I think there are things out there that the whole world loves. 

Sports is an obvious one, because take a sport just in America as an example. If you end up in Boston, you probably don’t want to be celebrating the Yankees. So there are modular opportunities in sports and music to be able to do those kinds of things. I’m not sure where they are yet. As we climb out of this global struggle that we’ve had with COVID-19 I hope that we can put more resources on things like that.