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Anthony Parnther was sitting in his Lynchburg middle school classroom when the announcement blared from the intercom:
“All students in the school band report to the bus for the Kings Dominion.”
Man, oh, man, Parnther wanted to go. But he didn’t play an instrument.
More than 20 years later, the now famous Hollywood conductor — who will be conducting in Hampton Roads Thursday — still remembers the heartache of watching his classmates rambling “and bounding out of the door, leaving me behind,” he said.
Then and there, Parnther picked up a dictionary to randomly select an instrument to learn to play. The first instrument he found in the As was an accordion but it reminded him too much of his parents watching “The Lawrence Welk Show.”
Flip, flip, flip …
In the Bs, however, he found what would become his life’s magic — the bassoon.
Parnther, who was born in Norfolk before the family moved to Lynchburg, learned to play, and his skills assured him a seat on the band bus the next year. In years to come, Parnther’s bassoon playing took him to Northwestern and Yale universities, where he studied music performance and orchestral conducting, and then to Hollywood.
Thursday, May 4 — the fan-dubbed Star Wars Day (”May the 4th be with you”) — Parnther will conduct the Virginia Symphony Orchestra Chorus in songs from the “Star Wars” franchise at the Ferguson Center in Newport News. The performance will include a premiere of a song written — not so long ago — for a galaxy far, far away.
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Although, it’ll be far from the first time that Parnther has contributed to or played “Star Wars” tracks.
After studying at Yale, Parnther went to Hollywood where he played on scores for movies such as “Suicide Squad,” and “Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker.”
Having grown up humming John Williams’ “Star Wars” theme and playing it in school orchestras, he said, all these years later, being in the room with composers while they created new Star Wars music “was quite a full circle moment.”
He has also conducted for movie and TV shows including “Fargo,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Star Wars: The Mandalorian” and “Star Wars: Book of Boba Fett.”
Weekend Scoop
Parnther hopes that Thursday’s audience will not only feel the power and the majesty of the franchise’s iconic songs but also enjoy some that they’ve never heard before. “Star Wars Battlefront Suite,” composed by Gordy Haab and included in the video game “Star Wars Battlefront,” will be played for the first time by a U.S. symphony in front of a live audience.
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com
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If you go
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Ferguson Center for the Arts, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Newport News
Tickets: Start at $25
Details: virginiasymphony.org