Thanks to βE.T.,β Keitaro Harada loves Reeseβs Pieces, the peanut butter candies born out of the popular Reeseβs Peanut Butter Cups.
βI watched βE.T.β when I was in Japan and you could not buy Reeseβs Pieces in Japan,β said the conductor, who returns to Tucson this weekend to conduct two βE.T.β cine-concerts with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. βSo when I first came to the U.S., when I saw Reeseβs Pieces, I thought thatβs the snack that brings aliens. Thatβs ETβs favorite snack.β
Donβt be surprised if you see a bag of Reeseβs Pieces on the podium at Tucson Music Hall as Harada leads the orchestra through the glorious John Williamsβ score while the movie plays on a big screen.
βOne of the great things about John Williams is that he really uses the themes of characters and themes of the moment and place,β Harada, a University of Arizona alumnus, said during a phone call from Tokyo. βI think itβs just genius.β
Harada, who has been a regular guest conductor with the TSO over the past decade, lives in Tokyo with his wife, fashion designer and professional tennis player Yuri Kurashima. Harada, 34, splits his time between his native Tokyo and Savannah, Georgia, where he is music and artistic director of the Savannah Philharmonic orchestra β a position he landed last summer after serving as an assistant conductor for several American orchestras including with Arizona Opera. The Savannah job is his first music director position.
Harada has been conducting cine-concerts β where the orchestra performs the score live while the movie plays β since he did βFantasiaβwith the TSO in 2014.
βItβs so fun. I love, love, love conducting film with live orchestras. Thereβs something really exciting about it,β he said. βI think at the heart of why I enjoy this one is that itβs John Williams. His score is such genius.β
That score got Williams an Academy Award for βE.T.β
βWhen you think about the 1970s and the trend back then was, especially with sci-fi movies, to use electronic sounds, sounds coming out of keyboards and crazy electronic things. Then here comes Mr. John Williams ... and a story about something that is unimaginable, an extraterrestrial, and the music that we hear is symphonic, something that we can relate to. Itβs a great mix of all kinds of worlds.β
Harada has done a number of cine-concerts since his first in Tucson and is on a go-to conductor list put out by Disney studios for orchestras mounting the concerts, he said. The concerts can be tricky when it comes to performing the score live in sync with the film.
βFor me whatβs really fun is syncing the sound of the live performance with the video and thatβs a real skill thatβs super necessary for the contemporary conductor,β he said, and something that is particularly challenging when the music is integral to the action on the screen.
Harada points to the scene in βE.T.β where Elliott, the little boy who finds the lovable alien in the tool shed, is racing on his bike with E.T. in the basket, heading to the area in the forest where E.T.βs people will pick him up. Williamsβ score builds the drama of the moment and one note out of sync will rob the tension.
βThis is a movie that has been seen by millions of people. And the audience, even though they may not have been familiar with the score, they are familiar with the music,β Harada said.
βWilliams really is such a great opera composer, even though heβs never written an opera,β he added.
Catch the βE.T.β cine-concert Saturday, Nov. 30, at 4 p.m. or Sunday, Dec. 1, at 2 p.m. at the Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.
Tickets are $31 to $87, half-price for children under 18, through ticketmaster.com.