The following post originally appeared as a guest blog on the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's PSO BLOG. Special thanks to their Director of Media Relations, Joyce DeFrancesco, for extending the invitation to contribute!
SYMPHONIC AND CLASSICAL music entered my world when
I was eight years old. It wasn’t in a particularly sophisticated way – if one
goes in for notions of art belonging to “high brow” and “low brow” classes,
which I don’t – but rather the same way it does for a lot of people. I was
exposed to it through the release of a specific film which resonated with me
before I’d seen a single frame: SUPERMAN:
THE MOVIE. I had already been a fan of the Man of Steel for half my life,
and was at the perfect age to see that film. SUPERMAN was big and full of spectacle and it perfectly brought to
life a character I needed in my topsy-turvy home life. Much of my early years
were characterized by dysfunction and instability; Superman always delivered
the opposite of those elements, wherever I encountered him. He was always
strong, smart, caring, and dependable. These traits immediately made him my
lifelong hero.
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| Me and my artwork in front of Heinz Hall Photo: Kristin Ward |
Reading his adventures in comic-books directly inspired
me to start drawing, which in turn became my lifelong profession. I realized
that most people decided what careers they wanted to have as adults only as
they got older. Some wanted to be doctors or police officers, and some wanted
to be firefighters or astronauts. My mother was a gifted musician, and her
siblings and their children always said she had “the gift” of being able to naturally
play the piano in church from a very young age. I ended up taking a cue from my
father, who had visual arts talents, which led directly to my exposure to
comic-books and the worlds of superheroes. Every time I opened the covers of
another issue, I knew, without question, that making stories with my own artwork
was what I wanted to do with my life.
Other media reinforced this notion. I watched
cartoons and television, like every other child, and Superman and his cohorts
were there as well in various incarnations. Reruns of the 1950s television show
The Adventures of Superman brought a
different kind of thrill into the living room. I instantly memorized the
opening title march and heroic music became synonymous with the character. In
much the same way, The William Tell Overture had, over time, became synonymous
with another fictional hero who also had a tv show in the ‘50s, The Lone Ranger. Unlike that western
hero, however, Superman merited his own original music, and no one understood
this more than composer John Williams. Having just scored a hit, literally,
with the soundtrack of the original STAR
WARS, Williams then turned his attentions to helping us all believe a man
could fly. His results have since proven to be one of the most impressive
special effects to have ever been derived from comic-books.
