THE MUSIC OF QUEEN: A ROCK SYMPHONY to Play Curran Theatre

Bridging the gulf between rock n' roll and classical music, conductor/arranger Brent Havens will take the podium to present Windborne's The Music of Queen: A Rock Symphony, a program he scored to extend the listening experience of Queen's tunes. Performed by an orchestra and amplified with a full rock band and vocals, Havens and his ensemble capture Queen's distinct sound while presenting some familiar and lots of new musical colors. The Music of Queen will perform at ATG San Francisco's Curran Theatre for one performance only on Saturday, November 7 at 7:30 PM.

 “So many of the musicians grew up with this music much like we did,” says Havens. “They may not have studied it to the extent that my musicians have studied it but they are certainly familiar with the music. Who can avoid hearing 'We Will Rock You' at sporting events, on TV shows, and even in the super market?” Indeed, Queen's music seems omnipresent. 

As with the other shows, Havens understood that Queen fans would want to hear the original, familiar elements of the music. He therefore followed exact line arrangements and used the orchestra for enhancement. With a 50-piece orchestra hanging on his every cue, Havens had a large landscape to work with. Just among the double-reed instruments—the oboe, English Horn, bassoon—there are so many colors. Add in the violins, violas, cellos, basses, and woodwinds or more pure sounds from instruments like a flute or a clarinet and the selection grows. Then consider the entire brass section: trumpets, trombones, French horns, and the lower brass like the bass trombone and tuba and you realize the variety of choices available to accompany a distorted electric guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. Queen's rich chord structures and amazing vocal harmonies made the music an ideal choice for scoring.