Barisons Singers was asked to perform in the world premiere of James Brett’s The Book Of Dreams, accompanied by the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
James Brett is a British TV and Film composer and has worked on such films as X-Men, The Iron Giant, Event Horizon and What Dreams May Come as well as the 2001 epic miniseries Band of Brothers by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
The Book of Dreams is a piece for children’s choir and orchestra. James originally thought of it as a mini film score set in a fantasy world where the children have the chance to play the characters on a musical journey. The story contains everything needed to make this children’s musical successful, a dragon, a desert, a forest and a dwarf.
The story is told through the music and the aim of the lyrics is to give a foundation for the listener to follow the adventure to the faraway places within the story.
The Orchestra that performed the music was the London Metropolitan Orchestra conducted by Andrew Brown. This is one of Britain’s leading Film and Television Orchestras with over 200 soundtracks and CDs to their name. They have worked for all the major Hollywood studios, and composers such as Michael Kamen, Elliott Goldenthal and Danny Elfman.
Film soundtracks include Reign of Fire, About the Boy, The Count of Mounte Cristo, Rug rats in Paris, Hilary and Jackie, Mr Holland’s Opus and more.
Their television soundtracks include Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers, Inspector Morse and Danziel and Pascoe, and they have recorded and performed with artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Annie Lenox, Sting, Bryan Adams, Pink Floyd, Jon Bon Jovi, Nigel Kenedy, Paul McCartney and Sir Cliff Richard.
With this in mind, it was a fantastic opportunity for the members of Barisons Singers to work with such a respected orchestra and conductor. Both James and Andrew came to rehearse the choir before hand and I think they were delighted with the progress our choir made. With little rehearsal time our choir completed the whole work just in time for one last run through on the day, and a performance in the evening.