Independent Arts News Reporting PSO Soundtracks Talk: Picture Perfect – Music and the Movies With Ross Amico
Reported Wednesday, September, 25, 2024.
Pictured Above: Classic Ross Amico – radio host and music journalist. Photo Credit: Contributed.
NEWSROOM POST: PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Princeton, NJ – Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents its first Soundtracks talk of the season on Tuesday, October 8 at 7pm at the Princeton Public Library. “Picture Perfect: Music and the Movies” features radio personality and music journalist Ross Amico. Mr. Amico will share his personal interactions with some of his favorite film scores and observations on the evolution of movie music. An audience Q&A immediately follows the presentation, which takes place in the Library’s 2nd floor “Newsroom.”
Ross Amico has been sharing his love of classical music and film music for nearly 40 years. After working in community radio while an undergraduate at Temple, he joined WWFM The Classical Network, where he hosted live air shifts and produced recorded concerts for the next 25 years. He has also hosted regular shows on WPRB Princeton and WRTI Philadelphia. He continues to explore film music on Picture Perfect and examines seldom-heard composers and recordings on The Lost Chord. These long-running shows air in syndication along with his light music program, added in 2023, Sweetness and Light. As a writer, he has promoted the local and regional arts scene through articles and reviews for The Times of Trenton and U.S. 1. He has interviewed, among others, JoAnn Falletta, Leon Fleisher, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Marc-André Hamelin, Sharon Isbin, Peter Schickele, Caroline Shaw, Chris Thile, Dawn Upshaw, Pinchas Zukerman, and Christopher Walken. A record collector from the age of 10, Ross credits his fascination with film with having introduced him to the symphony orchestra.
The talk serves as a prelude to the orchestra’s October 19-20 concerts which includes a work by Michael Abels, a composer noted for writing scores for Jordan Peele’s films Get Out (2017), Us (2019), and Nope (2022).
Soundtracks is free and open to the public, and is presented as a PSO BRAVO! community outreach program in partnership with Princeton Public Library. The series is sponsored in the 2024-25 season by AffinIT.
Information on Soundtracks and the PSO’s October 19-20 concerts can be found on the orchestra’s website at www.princetonsymphony.org.
Pictured Above: 9.15 – 8 members of YOCJ at center stage with the PSO, Rossen Milanov conductor. Photo Credit: Courtesy of PSO Staff.
ABOUT THE PRINCETON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is a cultural centerpiece of the Princeton community and one of New Jersey’s finest music organizations, a position established through performances of beloved masterworks, innovative music by living composers, and an extensive network of educational programs offered to area students free of charge. Led by Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov, the PSO presents orchestral, pops, and chamber music programs of the highest artistic quality, supported by lectures and related events that supplement the concert experience. Its flagship summer program the Princeton Festival brings an array of performing arts and artists to Princeton during multiple weeks in June. Through PSO BRAVO!, the orchestra produces wide-reaching and impactful education programs in partnership with local schools and arts organizations that culminate in students attending a live orchestral performance. The PSO receives considerable support from the Princeton community and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, regularly garnering NJSCA’s highest honor. Recognition of engaging residencies and concerts has come from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the PSO’s commitment to new music has been acknowledged with an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and a Copland Fund Award. The only independent, professional orchestra to make its home in Princeton, the PSO performs at historic Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University.
