Meet Dr. Lisa Lindley: Bringing Halloween to Life with Symphony Sounds

Theme Song Artist: 00:00:00

In a land of sunshine where the palm trees sway, there's a special show to brighten up your day. From rockin festivals to Broadway dreams. Tune in with Bunny G. It's a desert scene. The desert scene with Barny G.

Meet the stars and feel the beat from the Coachella Valley is the place to be for all the culture, fun, and hard.

Howard the Announcer: 00:00:39

Mutual broadcasting welcomes you to the desert scene, featuring conversations with the people who make culture, art and entertainment happen in the Coachella Valley. From local theater to live music, art exhibits to cinema and beyond. The desert scene is presented by el portal mexican restaurant in Cathedral City.

Now here is your host, Bonnie Ghdem.

Bonnie G.: 00:01:03

And welcome to the desert scene. So happy to have you here and very happy to welcome to the show doctor Lisa Lindley, who is the CEO of the Coachella Valley Symphony.

And they've got a really fun Halloween event coming up October 19. Hi, Lisa. How are you?

Lisa Lindley: 00:01:17

Hi, Bonnie. I'm fabulous. How are you?

Bonnie G.: 00:01:19

Good. So this sounds like so much fun Halloween music. Spooktacular.

Lisa Lindley: 00:01:24

Yes.

Bonnie G.: 00:01:25

So tell us a little bit about this and how the event came together and who chose the music and all that good stuff.

Lisa Lindley: 00:01:32

Sure.

Well, we've done this theme for the last few years, and it's just been really fun, so we decided just to kind of stick with the theme, but we change up the music. Our conductor and music director always chooses the music in the program, and he is.

He's just a master of selecting program music makes it really fun, interesting. He puts things together that you would never think could go together in a program, but they do.

And he gives a lot of fabulous background to the music, and the composers really brings them to life throughout the concert. So it's just a lot of fun. We also thought it was a fun opportunity for the musicians to dress up in costume.

Bonnie G.: 00:02:19

Oh, great.

Lisa Lindley: 00:02:20

And audience members can do the same thing.

Bonnie G.: 00:02:23

And I'm looking at a list of some great stuff. Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Junior.

A theme from et John Williams Basic Instinct theme Edward Scissors hands the sorcerer's apprentice at the world's end from the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Addams family theme prelude and murder from the psycho suite Titanic Zero zero seven through the year. Some great, great music. So does John, the director, does he give a little talk a little bit before each piece?

Lisa Lindley: 00:02:55

He does, and he. It's really very interesting. He is.

I've never seen anyone describe the music and the history of the conductors in the way that he does, and it's the kind of thing I don't believe you can teach somebody to do, they're just born with that ability.

And he, so he will be telling people at this point in the music, you'll hear this, and what's going on here is XYZ, or at this point, when the composer composed this, he was going through this in his life, and you can actually hear it at this point in the music.

Bonnie G.: 00:03:31

I love that.

Lisa Lindley: 00:03:32

Yeah. Or when this song was written, it was actually written for this particular event, but now it's been played in these type of events.

You know, he just, he brings all of that to life, the composer and the piece, the instruments. Sometimes he takes a break to say, listen to how this instrument sounds and the way that makes you feel, and that's why it's used in this piece.

It's really fascinating.

Bonnie G.: 00:03:57

And I think that is so important, especially for people who maybe are maybe younger people or people who are new to symphony music, to really engage them and bring it to life and let them connect to it in a way where they're not just saying, oh, this is a bunch of classical music, you know what I mean? It really takes you into the experience. That's fabulous.

Lisa Lindley: 00:04:17

Absolutely. And think of how many people would tell you they wouldn't want to go to a symphony concert, or they just, it wouldn't be on their list yet.

They love the music from pirates of the Caribbean, and they all understand the way that music makes you feel when you're sitting in a theater watching that on the big screen or zero, zero seven, most people probably would say they wouldn't consider that symphonic music, but of course it is. You know, you've got things that are from Disney cartoons that are listening music. Right. That people don't even view it that way.

So I think helping people to go, oh, yeah, right. This is a symphony, right?

Those sounds that I love when I'm either sitting in my living room streaming something on the Disney Channel or sitting in a theater watching one of my favorite movies, those sounds are being created by a symphony. And so it's nice to be able to have people visualize that.

Bonnie G.: 00:05:23

Would you say, what percentage do you have, much of a percentage of younger people, of children or teens who come to these events?

Lisa Lindley: 00:05:31

Well, one of the reasons we do a program like this is to encourage families, you know, and our partnership for the last several years with the city of Rancho Mirage, who is also one of our sponsors for this season, they, their partnership, along with others, allows us to offer these concerts free to the community. So that's number one. We hope that families can afford to come because it's free. There's no barrier to attending.

And we program events like a Halloween spectacular that are very family friendly with the idea that we want to expose young families, young children to this type of music and to remind people, if they haven't thought of it, that this is actually symphony. We don't want to lose this, right? We don't want everything to be canned. We want to. We don't want to lose live symphony music.

Bonnie G.: 00:06:28

Absolutely nothing. I'm sorry. We're going to take just a really quick break here on the desert scene with doctor Lisa Lindley. We'll be right back.

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Bonnie G.: 00:07:39

And we're back on the desert scene talking to doctor Lisa Lindley, who is the CEO of the Coachella Valley Symphony, talking about this wonderful Halloween event they have coming up. Halloween music, spooktacular. Saturday, October. This is at the McCallum, correct?

Lisa Lindley: 00:07:55

It is at the McCallum, yes, this time.

And so what a nice opportunity that thanks to the sponsorship from the city and their relationship with the McCallum, and we have other seasoned sponsors that Harold Matzner, the Auen Foundation, Eisenhower Medical Center, and also the Mary Williams Stanley Trust that are of primary sponsors for this season. And thanks to them, we get to do two of our concerts in the McCallum this year and they'll all be free to the community. So we're very thankful.

Bonnie G.: 00:08:31

Normally in a season, how many events or concerts like this do you do?

Lisa Lindley: 00:08:36

We typically do three or four. This season is three. And so this one in October, October 19 will be in the McCallum. April 25 we're back in the McCallum.

And February 22, we will be at the ranch Marine amphitheater.

Bonnie G.: 00:08:52

Oh, fabulous. So tell us a little bit. How long have you been CEO of the symphony? How did you get involved?

And tell us a little bit about your background and your connection with them.

Lisa Lindley: 00:09:03

Oh, my goodness.

was. That was probably about: 2010

And then in: 2012

To be able to do that was such a gift.

Bonnie G.: 00:09:50

Yeah.

Lisa Lindley: 00:09:50

And I really felt so grateful to the symphony for that opportunity that I wanted to also help them. I wanted to do more for the Coachella Valley Symphony.

The Coachella Valley Symphony is unique in our community because there are professional musicians who play in the symphony, many professional musicians who donate their time because they've grown up in this community and they've grown up.

I have a musician in the symphony now who has been there since its inception who started in youth programs when she was about 13, and she still plays with us.

Bonnie G.: 00:10:29

That's great.

Lisa Lindley: 00:10:30

Isn't that amazing? And she is a music teacher. She plays violin and viola. She's fabulous. But she's still involved with us.

So we have, we provide an opportunity for retired musicians to continue to play, for music teachers in the valley to continue to play. We have our youth programs which are offered free of charge where we provide group instruction in a group violin string symphony format.

We also provide individual scholarships to help them grow as they come up through our youth programs.

When they are proficient enough, we put them in the adult symphony next to a mentor so we can really push the limits and help them grow more as musicians. So that's part of the way to reach youth and perpetuate live symphony music.

But people also have to be aware of who we are and what we do to even know that those opportunities exist. I'm sure there are many families with children who could be a part of those programs who don't even know we exist.

So hopefully somebody will hear your program today.

Bonnie G.: 00:11:41

Halloween music spooktacular: 07:30

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Lisa Lindley: 00:12:07

Thank you so much. You take care. Have a great day.

Bonnie G.: 00:12:10

You, too. All right. And we'll see the rest of you then. Next time on the desert scene.

Theme Song Artist: 00:12:24

The Desert Scene with Bonnie G. Meet the stars and feel the beat, from the Coachella Valley it's the place to be for all the culture, fun and harmony. The Desert Scene. Yeah. With Bonnie G. To The Desert Scene's where you belong with Mutual Broadcasting. Bonnie G. Just sing along. Just sing along.