ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will be channeling the Day of the Dead for it's next performances.
This weekend, the orchestra will be performing music from the popular animated film "Coco" at the Stifel Theater.
"There's a screen and we're on the stage under the screen performing the score as written (while the movie is playing)," Alan Stewart, Associate Principal Percussionist on Total Information A.M. "In some ways, it's like the way they used to do it 100 years ago."
Stewart says for a percussionist like him, playing a film straight through is a skillset that is new for his generation, and now requires him to be consistently running around a lot.
"I think every generation of symphonic musicians have to go through a phase of change where they do some rep that wasn't done in generations past," said Stewart.
"When they record it, they usually do it in chunks, sometimes in 20 seconds, 1 minute chunks. We're playing it straight as if it is a symphonic work."
Stewart says the performance will require him to play just 20 instruments alone, with each of the five percussionists in the symphony playing an average of 15 instruments during the performance.
"So a lot of maracas, shakers, a lot of drums that are similar to what we've used, but just slightly different in its construction," said Stewart. "There's easily 50 plus percussion instruments on stage."
Stewart says the hardest thing when doing a performance like this isn't playing the instruments, it's more about the logistics.
"It's the moving around, 'where do I play next?'' said Stewart. "So a lot of it depends in the moment 'oh how much time do I have to go from point A to point B?' Sometime it can be pretty crazy."
The St. Louis Symphony will have two performances this weekend, with the first one taking on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m., while the second performance will take place the next day on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m.
Tickets to attend both performances can be found on the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's website.
