In early 1980, Star Wars was not yet the sprawling cinematic universe we know today. It was only one movie released in 1977. But it was apparent the second installment was bound to be a blockbuster. 

Legions of young people, including a certain 16-year-old who aspired to be a journalist, lined up to see The Empire Strikes Back in theaters on the weekend of its release in May 1980. We were mesmerized, not only by the visionary work of filmmaker George Lucas, the epic story, and the dazzling visual effects, but also by the grandeur of its music, composed by John Williams.

On Sept. 16 at Foellinger Theatre, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Chia-Hsuan Lin, will perform a live accompaniment to the screening of The Empire Strikes Back, in what could be the largest instrumental production they’ve ever staged. There are more than 100 musicians, far more than the usual complement of 65, playing this two-hour film. 

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Allowing Orchestra to tell story

Last year, orchestras around the world gave concerts celebrating the 90th birthday of Williams, known for his scores of more than 120 films including Jaws and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter franchises. The Fort Wayne Philharmonic’s production of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park at the Foellinger last September was one of their four concert tributes to Williams in 2022.

For The Empire Strikes Back, the Philharmonic are bringing back a young friend, Taiwanese conductor Chia-Hsuan Lin, who began her career with the Philharmonic in 2014 when she was in graduate school. Today, Lin is associate conductor with the Richmond Symphony in Virginia, guests with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with university and youth orchestras across the U.S. and even in Italy.

Lin spoke with me via Zoom and gushed about how exciting it is to conduct Williams’ score. 

“What I really admire is that his music maximizes the ability of the orchestra to tell the story,” she said.

She described how his music is so well-written that you can almost follow the movie just by listening: “If you just close your eyes, you’d know exactly what’s going on.”

In this concert, each musician will have to read through a huge book of sheet music after only two rehearsals. The conductor has to pull all the musicians together and sync their playing to the film. Williams’ scores are particularly demanding on the musicians, especially the brass and woodwinds.

“You need an orchestra of Olympians. They’re all like world-class athletes. Not only do they have to play the notes, but there’s a physical challenge,” she says, talking about the “The Battle in the Snow” scene early in the film. “You got to go fast, right? You got to fly fast, you got to escape fast! It’s not just technique, it’s also physical endurance and concentration. The time changes, the scene changes, the color changes, the mood changes, all those leitmotifs, you have to follow all that in the story and give that color during the performance.”

Quite the production

Lin said accompanying a film isn’t at all like conducting a symphony in a concert hall. But it is like conducting a very demanding opera or a ballet, where the conductor has to make the instruments follow singers and dancers, not the other way around.

The conductor has to listen to a click track synchronized to the film in her in-ear monitors and conduct every cue at a precise moment. In the quiet­­er, character-driven scenes, she tries to put in some breathing space to “give the orchestra a little bit more freedom between lines, a scene for Yoda or a little bit of blossoming in the scene between Princess Leia and Han Solo. A little bit of tenderness. Let the music flow a little bit.”

Philharmonic General Manager Jim Mancuso spoke with me about the technical challenges. The Phil pays a licensing fee to Disney, which now owns the Star Wars properties and provides the specially prepared video and the sheet music. 

Disney flies in a technician to operate the computer gear with the film on it. The Phil sends in a crew of 12 the day before to outfit the Foellinger and for rehearsals with the musicians. 

They use the Foellinger’s sound system, but the Phil hires a local company, Markey’s, for the video projection equipment and another company to outfit the musicians with individual pickups and microphones and miles of cables. 

They fly in a specialist sound engineer from Nashville, Tennessee, who operates the most elaborate console you’ve ever seen, mixing 100 tracks of audio from the musicians.

Origin story

Lin spent a year with the Phil in 2014 before she went on to complete her doctorate at the University of Notre Dame then to take her position in Richmond in 2016. 

“My time in Fort Wayne was incredible,” Lin said. “It’s a loving and really warm community, and I’m always amazed with how vibrant the art scene is in Fort Wayne. And in my tenure here, I was so nurtured by this position, the community, the orchestra. 

“I was mentored by (Music Director) Andrew Constantine in the classical repertoire and how to create an exciting holiday concert or a pops concert, doing ballet and work like Handel’s Messiah, to work with soloists and to work with the chorus. And we have a wonderful chorus in Fort Wayne. I was warmly supported by the community, and during my tenure I made some great friends. So this feels like coming home. I am really excited to see all my friends in Fort Wayne.”

Let me leave you with something I learned from the Jurassic Park show last year. 

At the end of the last scene, when the credits start to roll, if you get up and leave, you will miss the best music. There’s five more minutes, recapitulating all the great themes, and the conductor brings out the best in the players. 

You will want to get on your feet “and cheer for this orchestra of Olympians,” Lin said. “Think about how many hours that they put in to master their instruments. All together, it’s just masterful.”