“Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert – The 20th Anniversary Tour” is coming to the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Sept. 26. See Emmy Award-winning Jeremy Zuckerman’s legendary score brought to life by a live orchestra.
People that have never seen any orchestral performance in person may have preconceived notions of pretentious snobs watching boring, archaic music.
However, “Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert – The 20th Anniversary Tour” challenges this stereotype and is confident they can provide a thrilling and fresh experience to attendees.
Conductor Emily Marshall leads the live orchestra and believes the element of unknown is what excites first time audiences.
“People don’t come in knowing exactly what they’re going to see on screen. It’s not like a movie where they’ve seen it before. They have seen the show, but they don’t know how our show is built, and there’s a type of excitement there,” Marshall said.
This is Marshall’s second run with “Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert”. After a very successful and popular first run, audience members seemed excited and willing to return; prompting a second tour of the show.
“The excitement of Avatar we felt on the last tour just wasn’t winding down. There was an exit survey that they did at a few of the shows, and it was like 70-80% of the people who they interviewed wanted to come back and see the show again, which is a very high number for an interview type of thing,” Marshall said.
Marshall has been fostering her passion for performing and conducting since childhood and has been involved in music and theater production for nearly her entire life. After working in the Broadway musical scene, she took an opportunity as the associate conductor and keyboardist for The Who.
Marshall expanded on her time with The Who and how it helped with her conducting career.
“I think The Who stuff gave me an opportunity to kind of hone in on the conducting skills. I wasn’t always conducting; I was also performing the keyboard at night. So then with these film concerts, I got to take on a little more of the performance elements of the conducting too… So, with Avatar, the music is so intense and exciting throughout the whole [show], and there’s not a moment of the entire show where there’s no music,” Marshall said.
“We want to hear your responses. We want you to be part of the show with us.”
EMily marshall
Now, as they prepare for Dayton, Marshall is ready for another successful tour. Instead of being burnt out, she is excited and looking forward to introducing new audiences to the power of live music.
“No matter how many times you’ve done the show, it is potentially their first time seeing the show and first time seeing the live orchestra. And I think the excitement from the audience and the feedback that we get, you know, when we do a little speech at the beginning of the show just to give the audience permission to applaud to it’s not a stuffy orchestra concert. We want to hear your responses. We want you to be a part of the show with us, and that that gives us energy on stage too,” Marshall said.
Sinclair College Students interested in attending “Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert – The 20th Anniversary Tour” are able to receive a 30% student discount when they use the promo code: SINCLAIR. Mix it up and relive this childhood classic in a way like never before.
Noah Schlarman, executive editor
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