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UCF Celebrates the Arts to Join 400th Anniversary Observance of Shakespeare

As part of UCF’s second annual UCF Celebrates the Arts in April, the university’s orchestra and choruses will team up with Orlando Shakespeare Theater to present a program in collaboration with the worldwide 400th anniversary observance of William Shakespeare’s death.

The free program, Patrick Doyle’s Music of Shakespeare, will feature the music of composer and two-time Oscar nominee Doyle, who has served as the composer for Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespearean films, including Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and Henry V.

The program will be presented Friday, April 15, at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts under the baton of conductor James Shearman. While the musicians perform the songs and underscores from Doyle’s cinematic scores, actors from the Prague Shakespeare Company and Orlando Shakespeare Theater will perform scenes from the films.

Doyle, a classically trained composer, has composed more than 45 internationally renowned feature film scores including Indochine, Sense and Sensibility, Carlito’s Way, Gosford Park, A Little Princess, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Nanny McPhee and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He has also collaborated with a host of film directors including Robert Altman, Ang Lee, Brian de Palma, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newell and Regis Wagnier.

Shearman has gained worldwide recognition as a conductor and orchestrator of more than 60 feature film scores, from the Academy Award-winning score for Shakespeare in Love, Gosford Park, Brave, Thor and Doyle’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Featured actors for the evening include Jessica Boone and Guy Roberts from Prague Shakespeare Company, as well as actors from the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and UCF. Doyle and his son, Patrick Neil Doyle, will narrate the event, telling the audience about the inspiration and creation of the music.

“Guy Roberts and Jessica Boone from Prague Shakespeare Company are accomplished international artists who have a history of working with Patrick Doyle and we are thrilled to have them in Orlando,” said Orlando Shakespeare Theater artistic director Jim Helsinger.

Helsinger said there are several highlights for patrons to look forward to, including Henry V’s “The Non Nobis” song for those who died at Agincourt, sung by a full choir and orchestra, the joyous songs from Much Ado About Nothing, and hearing Hamlet do his great monologues backed by beautiful live music.

“The power of music is an irreplaceable element in any good stage or theatrical performance,” said Helsinger. “Patrick Doyle is a master composer whose work has turned many productions into cinematic legend.”

The Shakespeare presentation is one of the many events that will be presented at UCF Celebrates the Arts, which is all free and open to the public.

More than 1,000 university students, 100 faculty members and some collaborative programs with outside partners will showcase theatre, dance, orchestra, choirs, big band, chamber music, cabaret, concert bands, opera, visual arts, studio art, gaming, animation, photography and film.

This is part of a series of stories about the April 8-16 events at UCF Celebrates the Arts 2016. All events are free, but tickets are required for performances and entrance into the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave., Orlando. The full schedule is posted at arts.cah.ucf.edu; ticket information will be posted later this month.