The John Wilson Orchestra UK Tour

IT was the Golden age of Hollywood. From the 1920s to the 1960s, movies had all-singing, all-dancing casts creating classics such as High Society, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis and An American in Paris. MGM - an American media company – were pivotal in this movement, publicising a host of new stars such as Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford.

John Wilson, a world renowned conductor, arranger and film music expert, was given permission by Warner Bros., then rights holders to the MGM film catalogue, to reconstruct the scores to the classic MGM film musicals.

The John Wilson Orchestra

Wilson used old short scores and transcribed the original orchestrations by ear from the soundtrack recordings. The resulting album, That’s Entertainment: A Celebration of the the MGM Film Musical was released and charted at number 15 in the UK album charts.

Now John Wilson and his orchestra are hitting the road to, once again, bring these musical scores to life, on stage.

The Hooray for Hollywood! UK tour will be at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on 29 November, Leeds Town Hall on 30 November, Liverpool’s Royal Philharmonic Hall on 3 December and London’s Royal Festival Hall on 9 December. Watch the video clip below, taken from BBC Proms 2010, to get a taster of what to expect.

Visit www.johnwilsonorchestra.com for more details.