NSO Pops: Pink Martini & The von Trapps

If the United Nations had a house band in 1962, Pink Martini would be that band. One minute you’re in a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, the next you’re in a palazzo in Naples. Founded in 1994, this eclectic, genre-bending, multilingual ensemble picks up where it left off after its sold-out 2011 engagement with the NSO Pops to celebrate 20 years of sophisticated music making. With Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke and The von Trapps, who continue the family legacy that inspired The Sound of Music, expect a cool vibe with a hint of a wild side— just as its name implies—when Pink Martini returns September 11–13 to continue its musical travelogue in support of their collaborative new album Dream a Little Dream. Says the Washington Post: “This is rich, hugely approachable music, utterly cosmopolitan yet utterly unpretentious. And it seems to speak to just about everybody...from grade-schoolers to grandmothers to the young and hip and beautiful.”

NSO Pops: Danny Elfman’s
Music from the Films of Tim Burton

From his films Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Batman to The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, and Alice in Wonderland, no one knows how to combine weird and wonderful quite like two-time Academy Award®–nominated director Tim Burton. And with his unforgettable scores, Grammy Award®–winning composer Danny Elfman brings humor, drama, and pathos to these and other cinematic classics by his longtime collaborator. Just in time for Halloween, October 23–25, Grammy® and Tony Award®–winning conductor John Mauceri leads this “thrilling” (The Evening Standard) multimedia concert of Elfman’s “barbed and bouncy” (The Guardian) film music, already performed to sell-out crowds in London and Los Angeles. Visuals of some of Burton’s original sketches, drawings, and storyboards will be projected above the orchestra to illuminate the collaborative relationship between music and storytelling.