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If the theme from Jaws seems particularly nerve-jangling when the Victoria Symphony performs it at the Royal Theatre on Saturday, chances are it鈥檚 because conductor Sean O鈥橪oughlin had his own close encounter with great white sharks not so long ago.听
It was while he was on tour with Josh Groban in Cape Town, South Africa. The pop-opera star invited his conductor to hop aboard a helicopter Groban had chartered. Before long, they were in so-called Shark Alley 鈥� a sea channel off the coast 鈥� for a shark-cage diving adventure O鈥橪oughlin will never forget.
鈥淭here I am in a cage with Josh and a couple of the crew, and these great white sharks are circling around us and we smell like chum,鈥� said the 45-year-old arranger, composer and conductor, recalling how it brought back memories of Steven Spielberg鈥檚 classic thriller, which stars Robert Shaw as a shark hunter. 鈥淚 was waiting for Robert Shaw to come out and say: 鈥榃e鈥檙e going to need a bigger boat.鈥� 鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 just his Jaws-like experience that made O鈥橪oughlin, the symphony鈥檚 new principal pops conductor, ideally suited to take the baton for its Hollywood Thrillers concerts, set for 2 and 8 p.m. (O鈥橪oughlin, who has previously served as a guest conductor of the symphony鈥檚 pops concerts, will officially begin his tenure with the symphony for the 2018 season.)
Since he made Los Angeles his home 20 years ago, O鈥橪oughlin, also principal pops conductor of Symphoria in Syracuse, New York, has been a Hollywood fixture himself, working with artists such as Adele and Steven Tyler, and conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
It helps that he got his start in Hollywood as a copyist and proofreader of film scores for a company whose clients included John Williams, the Oscar-winning composer whose Jurassic Park and Close Encounters of the Third Kind scores will also be featured on Saturday. Other concert highlights include music from Spellbound, Psycho, Basic Instinct, Double Indemnity and Apocalypse Now.
O鈥橪oughlin worked on more than 30 Williams scores, counting Memoirs of a Geisha, featuring cellist Yo Yo Ma, among his most satisfying experiences.
He has particularly fond memories of a recording session at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. 鈥淛ohn had an idea and gave us a last-minute addition to the recording session at 7 a.m. and he wanted to record it at 10,鈥� recalled O鈥橪oughlin, who would work from William鈥檚 sketches, 鈥渨hich are so very complete,鈥� and prepared parts for various players.
鈥淭alk about an education. Just seeing how he creates his sound, working with the orchestrators is incredible,鈥� O鈥橪oughlin said. 鈥淭here I was, 10 feet away from John and Yo Yo Ma performing this gorgeous sequence of music from one of the peaks of the film.鈥�
Over 11 years, O鈥橪oughlin worked on music for 250 movies and TV shows. 鈥淚t was kind of a behind-the-scenes, see-how-the-sausage-is- made approach that I鈥檓 able to bring to the pop-conducting world,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he stories I鈥檓 able to drop are firsthand accounts of what happens in the film world.鈥�
As exhilarating as it was creating movie magic with such legendary musicians, O鈥橪oughlin said it was eye-opening in another way. 鈥淵ou realize that they pull up their pants just like we do, and drink water and talk and collaborate.鈥�
He applauded the 鈥渂rilliance in minimalism鈥� of both Williams鈥檚 score for Jaws and Bernard Hermann鈥檚 for Alfred Hitchcock鈥檚 Psycho.
鈥淛ohn always gets pegged as the two-note guy, but it鈥檚 so much more than that,鈥� he said. 鈥淗e is so masterful. He would change the tempo of those two notes鈥� and the pacing! If it was a chase scene, it would go 鈥榖oom, boom, boom鈥� and then he鈥檇 have it soft.鈥�
The musical minimalism was a response to Spielberg鈥檚 request to create a pace that would conjure up a sense of foreboding.
鈥淚t鈥檚 because of all the mechanical problems with the shark 鈥� they didn鈥檛 have as much camera time as they wanted,鈥� he said. 鈥淗ow do you tell there is a shark coming without physically seeing the shark? He knew these two notes and this gesture would do it.鈥�
O鈥橪oughlin demonstrated by playing his own piano over the phone, and referred to an Igor Stravinsky quote about how self-imposed limitations can drive creativity.
鈥淪travinsky鈥檚 greatest melodies are like five notes, and the way he spins those five notes is brilliant, and you have to think almost hyper-creatively to get more out of less,鈥� he said.
That鈥檚 what Williams does, he said, as well as Hermann for Psycho鈥檚 shower scene.