What happens when 25 Oscar-, Tony-, Grammy- and Emmy-winning composers pool their talents to create a single work? A Symphony of Hope. This ambitious musical fundraising project was orchestrated — pun intended — to help people in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. A beautiful, almost mystical orchestral suite that is, essentially, the ultimate movie score, Symphony of Hope begins with a simple but profound original Haitian melody. After this searing, haunting choral-vocal introduction, each composer contributed an additional eight to 32 bars of music, passing it along, in a sort of musical storytelling, to the next guy — symbolic, notes the website, of "the way that one lending hand passes on to another lending hand, until eventually a beautiful outcome is derived." This week, Lucas Richman conducts the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra and Choir in the world premiere of Symphony of Hope, with opening performances by... More >>>