Willoughby Symphony Orchestra | Hollywood
February 14, 2026, The Concourse, Chatswood, NSW
The grand sweep of our majestic Willoughby Symphony Orchestra in full flight, with an Imperial Cruiser hovering over the rebel spaceship. Well, we didn’t get the Imperial Cruiser (or the rebel spaceship), but Dr Nicholas Milton was dressed all in black, and he does play a mean air guitar! More on that later.
The Willoughby Symphony Orchestra presented a program on Hollywood music consisting of blockbuster soundtracks and cabaret songs. The songs were sung by concert soloist Mary Carewe, who hails from Great Britain, and presented a similar concert 2 years ago. She has a breathy, husky, dulcet voice slightly reminiscent of Amy Winehouse, but without the need for rehab. Every time she left the stage and came back on, she wore a different dress. Much was made of the different dresses, by both Dr Milton and a young man in the front row.
The concert actually began with the 20th Century Fox Fanfare, slightly slower than what you would normally hear on TV or the cinema, but I really liked the way that Dr Milton went straight into the main concert after the fanfare and ignored the audience applause. Because we went into the Star Wars universe! And what glorious music it was, and still is. It is hard not to give in to the emotion that this music triggers, because the music itself is spectacularly communicative and effective, and it also brings back memories of what a good movie it was when you saw it for the first time. John Williams has a great gift for melody and he knows how to showcase the whole and the parts of the orchestra. The WSO displayed virtuosic skills worthy of the best musicians and were able to carry on with the show despite the theatrical antics of Dr Milton. At various times, Dr Milton played air guitar, conducted the audience at random moments, and did some (tap) dancing.
Hats off to the Willoughby Symphony, for your performance is as good as anything that can be produced in the studio. The orchestra’s ability to pivot from dominant super-orchestra, e.g. Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman, to smooth, tender secondary accompaniment (most of the songs in the program) was superb. I have not heard better from a live orchestra. The dynamic range that the WSO commands was supreme, going from super pp (where everything can still be heard clearly) to ffff without deafening the audience or messing up the clarity of the lines. Most of the songs (following the standard recommendations of Composing 101) started softly, with a single line accompanying (or prefacing) the soloist (shout out to the pianist, harpist, and guitarist here!), then gradually more and more instruments join in accompanying the soloist until the whole orchestral is playing tutti at the climax of the song.
The brass players, in particular, were well showcased by this program. There were many spontaneous moments where a lesser orchestra could have messed up, e.g. one of the songs was started, and then interrupted (by Mary’s stunning dress walking onto the stage and 2 young men adulating the living legend herself), so the orchestra had to repeat the first chord until the primary performers were ready to go.
A concert is successful not only because of its performers. There were some special moments that will be etched in my memory forever, because the tech crew added their significant contributions to the whole experience. I am looking forward to the Frozen music night that WSO is holding next month, and during the snippet of Let it Go in this concert, snowflakes made of light were spinning on stage. Also, during Adele’s Skyfall song (that ended the concert according to the program), there was a light show that must have distracted the orchestra, but they all lived the motto: The Show Must Go On!
This was a concert where the audience was treated to performances of additional pieces beyond the menu given to us. It is not often that we are treated to extras, and the WSO has raised the expectations of its audience getting a feast of music for every concert now. We were treated to Leroy Anderson’s Belle of the Ball (where Dr Milton did his slide dancing) in the second half, and 3 encores after Skyfall: 1) Shallow from Lady Gaga’s version of A Star is Born, 2) something that needed and should have had a choir crooning in the background, since it was the theme music from Rocky (!), 3) Irene Cara’s other superhit (see below).
What A Feeling you gave me, WSO. It was incredible, and you made me so, so happy. I was Somewhere Over the Rainbow for the rest of the day. Thank you for this extravaganza feast of Hollywood music scores and songs. Nobody Does It Better.
