The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit & The Ring of Power

15th anniversary of the legendary original concert series as started
by Saruman actor Sir Christopher Lee -

The music of “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Hobbit” & “The Rings of Power”
with a special guest from the films!

The best music from “The Lord of the Rings”, “The Hobbit” & “The Rings of Power” in concert with a special guest from the films, The Orchestra and Choir of The Shire and Oscar-winning music of Ed Sheeran, Howard Shore, Annie Lennox, Enya and more composers.

OXFORD - The hobbits are coming! The musical world of hobbits and elves from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of The Rings” and “The Hobbit” will be performed in an unique concert by a film orchestra, choir and star soloists. The two-hour performance features an original star guest and the greatest music from the films, in a spectrum reaching from the threatening sounds of Mordor and the shrill attack of the black riders to the beautiful lyrical melodies of the elves.

The press celebrates “The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit & The Rings of Power - the
Concert” as a “highly emotional and mythical experience”:

"...whether bombastic with timpani and gongs or elvishly delicate flute tones: the well-
known, Oscar-winning melodies by Howard Shore from the film trilogy could be heard again
and again and immediately provided the right "cinema in the head"..."

"... in the end, neither the audience nor the musicians were kept on their chairs. The
audience managed to get the stars on stage to give three encores, with a standing ovation
'... Nearly 100 performers - from the well-playing orchestra to the choir to the outstanding
soloists - they all ensured that the audience was transported into the music of Tolkien's
world-famous fantasy world..."

The Orchestra and Choir of The Shire has performed in the leading concert venues in the world, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to the Konzerthaus in Vienna. It works closely together with European state orchestras.

COMPOSERS

HOWARD SHORE

Howard Shore is one of the most important composers of film music. Among his versatile works are the settings of “The Silence of the Lambs”, “Philadelphia”, “Seven”, “Panic Room” and “The Aviator”. The long-standing collaboration with the Canadian director David Cronenberg, for whom he wrote, among others, the music for “The Fly”, “Naked Lunch”, “Spider” and “A History of Violence”, plays an important role in his work. His most famous work, however, is the music for Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Only through Shore’s sophisticated leitmotif technique, for which he intensively studied the “Rheingold” by Richard Wagner, the films reach their dramaturgical depth. For the music Shore received his first Oscar and a Grammy. In 2004, he received a Grammy, two Golden Globes and two Oscars, and in 2005 he received two Grammys again for the third part of the trilogy.

ED SHEERAN

Having sold more than 150 million records worldwide, Ed Sheeran needs little introduction. An English singer-songwriter and one of the world’s best-selling music artists, Sheeran can lay claim to having the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. He has received four Grammys, five Brit Awards, and was appointed an MBE in 2017. His forays into the world of film go beyond having a song featuring in the end credits of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”. As well as cameos in “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”, he played himself in Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday”. Born in Yorkshire, he has recently been recognized as the fourth greatest Yorkshireman, behind Michael Palin, Sean Bean and Patrick Stewart.

ANNIE LENNOX

Best known for fronting Eurythmics in the 1980s, Anne Lennox is a Scottish singer­songwriter, activist and philanthropist. With four Grammys and eight Brit Awards to her name, Lennox has been dubbed the ‘Brits Champion of Champions.’ Her original song, “Into the West”, which featured in “The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King”, earned her both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

Dubbed by “Rolling Stone” ‘the greatest white soul singer alive,’ she is arguably the most successful female British artist in UK music history. She also campaigns tirelessly to raise money and awareness for women and children in Africa affected by HIV/AIDS, trying to raise awareness of the problem and collecting donations for projects in Africa.

ENYA

A hugely successful Irish singer-songwriter, Enya began her musical career with the Celtic folk band Clannad. She soon left the band to pursue a solo career and is now Ireland’s best­selling solo artist, and second-best artist overall behind U2. With sales of 75 million records

worldwide, Enya has won seven World Music Awards, four Grammys, and an Ivor Novello Award. Her song, “May it Be” written for “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”, was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

BEAR MCCREARY

Bear McCreary (born February 17, 1979) is an American musician and composer of film, television, and video games scores based in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his work on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series and for the TV series Outlander and The Walking Dead. The music of the American fantasy television series TheLord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is composed by Bear McCreary,

SPECIAL GUESTS FROM THE PAST

(The future special guest varies and will be announced on social media before the concert).

SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE

(the program includes his voice)

Christopher Lee, the “towering” British movie actor who lent his distinguished good looks, Shakespearean voice and aristocratic presence to a gallery of villains - from Dracula to Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings" - launched this concert series with Star Entertainment. Lee was 35 when his breakthrough film, Terence Fisher’s British horror “The Curse of Frankenstein”, was released in 1957. He played the creature. But it was a year later, exuding a certain lascivious sex appeal, when he played the title role in Fisher’s “Dracula”, that his cinematic identity became forever associated with Bram Stoker’s nob le, ravenous vampire. Despite his prominent status as a horror icon, only fifteen or so of his roughly 250 film and television appearances were within that genre, and that includes at least ten outings as Dracula. Lee continued acting into his 90s, appearing in Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows”, turning to the dark side as a Sith Lord in the “Star Wars” franchise.

He played “Saruman” in “The Lord of the Rings”, and reprised his role as the wicked wizard, in Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” trilogy. “What Professor T olkien achieved is unique in the literature of my lifetime. Indeed, in my opinion, he had reached the peak of literary invention of all time. Nothing like it has ever existed, and probably never will.” - Christopher Lee

WILLIAM KIRCHER

William Kircher has played the dwarf Bifur in the three “The Hobbit” film adaptations: “An Unexpected Journey”, “Desolation of Smaug” and “The Battle of the Five Armies”. He is famous for surviving the three films with an orc axe in his forehead. In the Tolkien language Khuzdul, he is truly a Khuzd Belkul, which means a “Mighty Dwarf”. “The Hobbit” tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, who takes a group of dwarves on an unexpected journey to reclaim their gold from a dragon. William Kircher plays the warrior and toymaker Bifur as a dwarf in the films as well as further roles such as “Tom, the troll”.

J. R. R. TOLKIEN

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) became world famous with his novel cycle “The Lord of the Rings”. Throughout his life he devoted himself to the history of his fictional Middle-Earth Empire. Not only George Lucas has visibly gained inspiration for his “Star

Already early J.R.R. discovered his love for languages. Welsh, Old English, Greek, French and German belonged to his preferred subjects during his school education. After his mother’s death, Tolkien was raised first by an aunt and later by a foster family. From 1911 he studied at Exeter College in Oxford, graduated in 1915 and went to war in 1918. In 1925 Tolkien was appointed professor at Oxford University, where his idea for the Hobbit was born. Originally intended as entertainment for his children and initially written without the idea of a commercial publication, the Hobbit was presented by a former student of Tolkien to the publisher Allen & Unwin, who published the story attentively in 1937. Although “The Little Hobbit’’ was not a bestseller, there were requests for a continuation of the story.

From 1936 to 1949 Tolkien wrote “The Lord of the Rings”. The first two volumes appeared in 1954 - a cult was born. In 1973 Tolkien died at the age of 81. His son Christopher took care of the publication of further stories from Middle-earth after his death. About 25 years after his death, the production of the film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” b egan with a budget of 190 million dollars. It became one of the most successful film productions of all time.