Philharmonic South West Orchestra to perform popular film scores at BREC for Family Proms Screen Sounds

Bunbury movie lovers are set to be taken on a journey through some of their favourite scores as the Philharmonic South West Orchestra gets set for another year of Family Proms.

A “lighter side” of traditional classical concerts Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre will be filled with songs from E.T., Superman and A Space Odyssey.

Musical director and principal conductor David Pye said the performance will cover well-known music from a variety of movies and TV series’ and said BREC is always a big concert for the South West orchestra.

“The concert is a little bit on the lighter side, they’re not your heavy serious classical concerts, they are a bit more lighter and more aimed towards a family audience,” he said.

“We started these several years ago . . . audiences were enjoying it so much BREC suggested we move into a bigger theatre so we could get a bigger audience and it has turned out well that way, we’re getting very good crowds.”

Tackling a new theme each year audience members are encouraged to dress up — this year as their favourite screen character — and arrive early to take part in the pre-show activities.

Pye said there are different activities to take part in before the show and this year’s performance will host a Screen Sounds interval fashion show.

“Each concert generally has a theme and all the different bits and pieces are tied into that theme . . . one year we made the audience create paper planes and throw them at the orchestra while playing the Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines,” he said.

“This year it is very much about dressing up as your favourite movie character so it’s going to be very interesting to see what the members of the audience turn up as.”

Using classical orchestral instruments the 55 musicians on stage will use their skills to create unique sounds to fit each musical piece according to Pye.

“It can be a challenge sometimes when you’re playing scores that call for instruments like Celtic flutes and things like that, but we’ve got some pretty talented musicians and they’re able to do a good job covering that kind of stuff,” he said.

2022 Family Proms, Screen Sounds will hit the Bunbury stage on September 17 with doors opening at 2pm and the performance to start at 3pm more information can be found at BREC’s website.