PORTLAND, Maine — James Kennerley, one of only two municipal organists in the United States, has spent an inordinate amount of time getting ready for a concert Saturday—a performance on the Kotzschmar organ in the Merrill Auditorium in Portland that will feature well-known movie music.
You might think a familiar piece such as the theme from "Star Wars" would come easily to Kennerley and the brass and percussion players who’ll accompany him, and for the most part, it does. Even so, the preparation is intense.
"Everything is in my head, but when you’re playing with friends you have to make sure you’re all playing from the same lead sheet," Kennerley said. "It’s actually been hundreds of hours of going through and making these little minute transcriptions and arrangements so that all of us can perform the same music at the same time."
The name of the event is Fab Film Music.
"I’m going to be playing, kind of as the title implies, all of the greatest music from the greatest Hollywood movies of the last 60, 70 years," Kennerley said.
There will be music from films such as "E.T.," "Indiana Jones," "The Little Mermaid," "James Bond," and more.
"It’s stuff that people are totally going to freak out about," Kennerley said.