The Town Hall x Crunchyroll Present Cowboy Bebop 25th Anniversary Concert
THE TOWN HALL x CRUNCHYROLL Present
COWBOY BEBOP 25th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT – THE MUSIC
Featuring THE SINFONIETTA, Led By Macy Schmidt
The Town Hall, Thursday, November 16th at 8pm
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Beloved Space Western Anime Series,
The Town Hall and Anime Streaming Brand Crunchyroll Debut an Audiovisual Event
Pairing Iconic Scenes with Symphonic Renditions of Kanno's Wildly Eclectic Score
The Japanese anime TV series Cowboy Bebop has been hailed as a breakthrough animated television series and championed as "a new genre unto itself." A critical and commercial success, it has been praised as a landmark anime and credited with introducing the genre to a wider audience of Western viewers. A crucial part of its success was its music, a wildly imaginative and eclectic score that added context and layers of depth to the action on the screen.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cowboy Bebop's premiere, The Town Hall and Crunchyroll, the leading anime streaming brand, present the music of Cowboy Bebop live performed by The Sinfonietta, an all-women and majority women-of-color orchestra led by Macy Schmidt on November 16 at 8pm.
The music for the 26 episodes that comprise the series was composed by Yoko Kanno, who formed the jazz and blues band Seat Belts to perform the music for the series.
"The experience at Town Hall will be watching episodes from the show with the music score played live by the orchestra," notes Schmidt. "Town Hall has selected a number of episodes from Cowboy Bebop, and we'll be playing the score to the film live synched up to the visual. The film-concert model has been done, but here it's being done with anime and something that stretches so many genres musically. That's part of what's so exciting about this particular project. I think it'll be particularly pioneering for people to come and see and hear."
The Town Hall conceived the program, says Melay Araya, the venue's new Artistic Director. "We're expanding what gets done at the Hall and what is considered serious music. Yoko Kanno is a brilliant composer. We wanted to honor the 25th anniversary of Cowboy Bebop, chose a date near AnimeNYC, and reached out to Kanno, Crunchyroll, and The Sinfonietta. Folks perform this music, but it has never been done in this format."
Cowboy Bebop is set in 2071. An accident has made Earth almost uninhabitable, and humanity has colonized most of the planets and moons of the solar system. The series follows the adventures of a group of bounty hunters (also called "Cowboys") on contract to chase criminals and capture them alive in return for a reward. Their battered red spaceship is called Bebop.
Searching for a fair description, reviewers suggested references to westerns, film noir, and sci-fi — with a touch of comedy. In an interview director Shinichirō Watanabe noted that Kanno's approach was a "big hit" with Cowboy Bebop. Watanabe was inspired by her work, which led him to create new scenes, which in turn nudged Kanno to write more music. This counterpoint between the narrative and the music, not a standard approach, gives the visuals and the soundtrack a distinct energy.
For Schmidt, who has been watching the series, "the one thing that's already very clear to me is that Cowboy Bebop has created its own genre," she says. "It's so genre-bending. You can't put it in a box, this genre or that, and I think it makes it a pioneer in its own space.
COWBOY BEBOP 25th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT – THE MUSIC
Featuring THE SINFONIETTA, Led By Macy Schmidt
The Town Hall, Thursday, November 16th at 8pm
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Beloved Space Western Anime Series,
The Town Hall and Anime Streaming Brand Crunchyroll Debut an Audiovisual Event
Pairing Iconic Scenes with Symphonic Renditions of Kanno's Wildly Eclectic Score
The Japanese anime TV series Cowboy Bebop has been hailed as a breakthrough animated television series and championed as "a new genre unto itself." A critical and commercial success, it has been praised as a landmark anime and credited with introducing the genre to a wider audience of Western viewers. A crucial part of its success was its music, a wildly imaginative and eclectic score that added context and layers of depth to the action on the screen.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cowboy Bebop's premiere, The Town Hall and Crunchyroll, the leading anime streaming brand, present the music of Cowboy Bebop live performed by The Sinfonietta, an all-women and majority women-of-color orchestra led by Macy Schmidt on November 16 at 8pm.
The music for the 26 episodes that comprise the series was composed by Yoko Kanno, who formed the jazz and blues band Seat Belts to perform the music for the series.
"The experience at Town Hall will be watching episodes from the show with the music score played live by the orchestra," notes Schmidt. "Town Hall has selected a number of episodes from Cowboy Bebop, and we'll be playing the score to the film live synched up to the visual. The film-concert model has been done, but here it's being done with anime and something that stretches so many genres musically. That's part of what's so exciting about this particular project. I think it'll be particularly pioneering for people to come and see and hear."
The Town Hall conceived the program, says Melay Araya, the venue's new Artistic Director. "We're expanding what gets done at the Hall and what is considered serious music. Yoko Kanno is a brilliant composer. We wanted to honor the 25th anniversary of Cowboy Bebop, chose a date near AnimeNYC, and reached out to Kanno, Crunchyroll, and The Sinfonietta. Folks perform this music, but it has never been done in this format."
Cowboy Bebop is set in 2071. An accident has made Earth almost uninhabitable, and humanity has colonized most of the planets and moons of the solar system. The series follows the adventures of a group of bounty hunters (also called "Cowboys") on contract to chase criminals and capture them alive in return for a reward. Their battered red spaceship is called Bebop.
Searching for a fair description, reviewers suggested references to westerns, film noir, and sci-fi — with a touch of comedy. In an interview director Shinichirō Watanabe noted that Kanno's approach was a "big hit" with Cowboy Bebop. Watanabe was inspired by her work, which led him to create new scenes, which in turn nudged Kanno to write more music. This counterpoint between the narrative and the music, not a standard approach, gives the visuals and the soundtrack a distinct energy.
For Schmidt, who has been watching the series, "the one thing that's already very clear to me is that Cowboy Bebop has created its own genre," she says. "It's so genre-bending. You can't put it in a box, this genre or that, and I think it makes it a pioneer in its own space.
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