Conductor Damon Gupton.
In Wednesday’s (5/8) WTOP News (Chevy Chase, Maryland), Jason Fraley writes, “You know his acting work from ‘Whiplash,’ ‘La La Land,’ ‘Bates Motel,’ ‘Criminal Minds,’ ‘Black Lightning’ and ‘The Big Door Prize,’ but did you know that Damon Gupton is also a respected orchestra conductor? This week, he’ll guest conduct the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for ‘Blockbuster Film Classics’ at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland on Thursday night, followed by Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore on Saturday and Sunday. ‘This is a wall of epic sound,’ Gupton told WTOP. “We’re going to do the incredible, lush orchestrations of a lot of the old film classics mostly spent on the first half, then the second half we’ll do some of the later things. So, we’ve got Old Hollywood to begin, then in the second half we bring out some newer things … It’s really, really wonderful to be able to come hear an orchestra play film scores live.’… My personal favorite remains Bernard Herrmann’s hypnotic theme for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). ‘I love Herrmann,’ Gupton said. ‘[Vertigo’s] ‘Scene d’Amour’ is just gorgeous … it’s a beautiful piece of music that holds up not just as a pops concert for films, but on a standard classical concert.’ ”
