Synthony 2018 - a week on
Synthony is done and dusted for another year after two massive sold out shows last weekend.
The lineup featured P Digsss (Shapeshifter), Ria Hall, Helen Corry, Omega Levine, sax legend Lewis McCallum, backing singers Cherie Mathieson and Iri Aumatangi, the 90-piece Auckland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Thomas and all hosted on the night by General Lee.
For those who are late to this party, Synthony is one big music, dance, lighting and visual extravaganza in the Auckland Town Hall. Basically, 20 of the biggest dance hits orchestrated and produced on a massive scale. The two shows sold out in a matter of hours.
I’m hugely proud to be a part of the creative team, working closely with Erika Amoore (one of the event creators) to produce the orchestral realisations of these tracks. As an arranger it really is such a treat to be able to work on an entire show of such forces. The scale is huge. Here are some stats on what we produced: 236 pages of conductor’s score, 720 individual orchestra parts, all adding up to 2531 pages of printed music being played on the night.
Here are my favourite pics:
This year every department upped their game and knocked last year’s triumphs out of the park. Musically, the arrangements are bigger and better, the orchestra itself is bigger too… and we unleashed the Town Hall organ! There were 15 brand new tracks, and the 5 repeat tracks from last year were all refreshed.
The response was overwhelming. Orchestras aren’t used to quite that degree of ‘audience interaction’. Here was the view from up in the percussion section…
Reviews were great as well:
“There were moments where the steaming crowd just stood in awe. Intense harmonies revolved around the track’s crazy catchy melody – violins jived into where the synth cuts-off, the cellos emulated a bass pad, trumpets and organ climbed into the drop - a compositional feat of orchestration work.
... a mesmerising and mind-blowing show.”
Immense thanks to Peter Thomas and the Auckland Symphony Orchestra who did an amazing job bringing this music together… with click track pumping in one ear… deafening audience in the other… with lights in all directions… while beads of sweat gather on the forehead… and yet they still smile and deliver yet another top level musical event for Auckland.
Finally, huge kudos to Erika Amoore and David Elmsly for their incredible vision and direction of this event. It really is quite something, and I’m already looking forward to the next one!
SET LIST
Robin S. - Show Me Love
Inner City - Good Life
The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
Robert Miles - Children
Laurent Garnier - Man With The Red Face
Roger Sanchez - Another Chance
Paul van Dyk - For An Angel
ATB - Till I Come
Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
Moloko - Sing It Back
Eric Prydz - Pjanoo
Avicii - Levels
Faithless - Insomnia
The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize
Disclosure - Latch
Underworld - Born Slippy
Tiesto - Adagio For Strings
Delerium - Silence
Solitare - You Got The Love
Shapeshifter - Electric Dream
