Expecto trombone: NMPhil brings the music, magic of 'Harry Potter' to life in three shows

Fans of the boy wizard can see “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” set to live music by the New Mexico Philharmonic in three performances this weekend.

The pairing of music and the movie takes place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, and at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16.

The concert will feature Ben Phelps conducting the musicians. Audiences will be able to relive the magic of the entire film in high-definition on a 40-foot screen while hearing the New Mexico Philharmonic perform John Williams’ unforgettable score live.

Called “feisty” and “impressive” by the Los Angeles Times, Phelps is a conductor, percussionist and composer. For the past eight years he has toured the world as an assistant conductor to “Lord of the Rings Live,” with which he has worked with many of the world’s great orchestras and music festivals, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra and many more. His conducting highlights this season include a complete performance of “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” over three nights with La Orquesta Sinfonica del Valles in Madrid, performances of “Harry Potter Live in Concert” across the U.S. and Canada, and this holiday season the new “Elf Live in Concert” in multiple cities across North America.

“For the past 10 years I’ve long worked as an assistant conductor with one of the first big touring live-to-film concert productions, ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ ” Phelps wrote in an email. “This project helped to establish a new genre of concert music, the idea that you could perform an entire film score, with a live orchestra, in accompaniment of a complete picture. There were many technical kinks to work out in the process of how to do this in terms of the synchronization between music and picture.”

The music of composer John Williams reveals a masterful construction, Phelps said.

“There’s so much detail to the orchestration, too many exciting moments to count, from the mysterious to the terrifying,” he added. “The music is actually incredibly challenging — the musicians will tell you this is one of the most difficult concerts they will play this year.”

In “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” Harry learns on his 11th birthday that he is the orphaned son of two wizards and possesses magical powers of his own. At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he learns the high-flying sport of Quidditch and plays a thrilling “live” chess game en route to facing a Dark Wizard bent on destroying him.

“The ‘Harry Potter’ film series is a once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomenon that continues to delight millions of fans around the world,” said Justin Freer, president of CineConcerts and producer/conductor of the Harry Potter Film Concert Series. “It is with great pleasure that we bring fans for the first time ever an opportunity to experience the award-winning music scores played live by a symphony orchestra, all while the beloved film is simultaneously projected onto the big screen. This is truly an unforgettable event.”

In 2016, CineConcerts and Warner Bros. Consumer Products announced the Harry Potter Film Concert Series, a global concert tour celebrating the Harry Potter films. Since the world premiere of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in Concert” in 2016, more than three million fans have enjoyed this magical experience from The Wizarding World, which is scheduled to include over 2,973 performances across more than 48 countries worldwide through 2025.