West Coast Premiere Tour Announced For The Lord of the Rings In Concert

The Lord of the Rings In Concert: The Fellowship of the Ring will be performed on October 15 for one performance only at Honda Center in Anaheim. Featuring Howard Shore's complete Academy Award® and Grammy®-winning score performed live on-stage by more than 200 musicians.

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 10 at 10AM at ticketmaster.com and by calling 800-745-3000. Tickets will be available at the Honda Center box office beginning Saturday, June 11. Tickets range from $32.50 to $86.50.

Celebrated Maestro Ludwig Wicki, the preeminent conductor of Howard Shore's Ring music, will conduct all performances. Joining Maestro Wicki is soprano Kaitlyn Lusk, who has toured the world as a soloist in The Lord of the Rings Symphony.

Peter Jackson's complete award-winning epic will be projected digitally on an immense 60-foot screen using an uncompressed high definition source with two 20k lumen projectors while The Combined forces of the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Chorale, and Phoenix Boys Choir bring the music of Middle-earth to life.

The Lord of the Rings In Concert: The Fellowship of the Ring kicks off a three-year celebration during which each of the three Academy Award®-winning films will be performed In Concert upon the tenth anniversary of its release. The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) will tour in 2011, The Two Towers (2002) in 2012, and the grand finale, The Return of the King (2003), in 2013.

The performance in Anaheim is part of a nine-city West Coast tour that also includes Glendale (AZ), San Diego, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, Fresno, Oakland and Sacramento.

Composer Howard Shore said, "My first score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, was the beginning of my journey into the world of Tolkien, and I will always hold a special fondness for the music and the experience."

Shore's score not only captures Fellowship's sweeping emotion, thrilling vistas and grand journeys, but also echoes the very construction of Tolkien's Middle-earth. Styles, instruments and performers collected from around the world provide each of Tolkien's cultures with a unique musical imprint. In operatic fashion, these musical worlds commingle, sometimes combining forces for a culminated power, other times violently clashing - and always bending to the will of the One Ring and its own ominous family of themes.

Doug Adams, author of the comprehensive book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films and advisor to this In Concert presentation, said:

The Lord of the Ringsis a story of universal human themes and experiences, including perseverance, sacrifice, friendship, and loyalty. These were the backbone of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, of Peter Jackson's films, and, of course, of Howard Shore's music.

These live performances place the score in the spotlight, and create a wholly new and unique audience experience. Even our most ardent fans are amazed at how completely Shore recreates Middle-earth in music - and how the live score provides narrative clarity, structural complexity, and above all, a living heart to the story. There's nothing quite like it.

This is an extraordinarily moving communal experience. It's our chance to join the Fellowship.

In 2009, over 10,000 people filled New York's Radio City Music Hall for the American premiere of The Lord of the Rings In Concert: The Fellowship of the Ring. TheNew York Times said, "The music of Middle-earth soared through misty climes and rumbled through Hadean depths at Radio City Music Hall [as] Howard Shore's intricate, far-reaching fabric of leitmotifs surged to the fore." Entertainment Weekly said "it was a terrific night at the theater."

ABOUT THE FILM
Released on December 18, 2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the first installment of Peter Jackson's fantasy adventure film trilogy based on the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien. A long-lost ring has been found and, through twists of fate, is in the possession of a small hobbit named Frodo Baggins.

When the Wizard, Gandalf the Grey, discovers this ring is in fact the all-powerful One Ring, Frodo must lead an epic quest to Mount Doom in order to destroy it. However he does not go alone. Frodo is joined by Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gimli the dwarf, Aragorn, Boromir and his three hobbit friends Merry, Pippin and Samwise - the Fellowship of the Ring.

Considered one of the most ambitious projects in film history, it took eight years to bring The Lord of the Rings to the screen. The result was an artistic and popular success of the highest order. The films won a total of 17 Academy Awards®, and are among the top-grossing films of all-time.

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