New Jersey Symphony Live Performance at the Screening of  Baahubali: The Beginning

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In a novel fashion, New Jersey Symphony at the Movies had a North American Premier of its three hour live concert accompanying Indian film Baahubali: The Beginning.

Baahubali: The Beginning is a fairy tale about a young orphan who learns of his heritage and fights to bring justice to his wronged family, while also having an adventurous mission to another Kingdom.

The special concert held July 27 and 28, 2024 at New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, was a 3-hour long live performance by the New Jersey Symphony (NJS) led by conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos. Kitsopoulos has described the music of Baahubali as having unusual sounds combined with powerful cinematography, creating spectacular effects.

On Saturday, July 27, there was a special reception before the concert. NJS and Kulture Kool organized henna painting by Global Kennekt and a performance by South Indian folk Tabla group ThiruParai Kuzhu. Special vegetarian food was available at the food trucks specially brought in for the concert.

Audiences watched the highly successful Indian film which was broadcast on a massive HD screen in Hindi with English subtitles. The spectacular scenes unfolded while the New Jersey Symphony performed M.M. Keeravani’s famous score, live in-sync with the motion picture.

Keeravani is a record producer, a singer and a lyricist, working mainly in Telugu cinema. In his long career, he has won many awards, including the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award, India’s National Film Award, Filmfare Awards and Government of India’s Padma Shri.

Some of his well known Hindi compositions include ‘Tu Mile Dil Khile’ from the film Criminal, ‘Gali Mein Aaj Chand Nikla’ from Zakhm, ‘Jadoo Hai Nasha Hai’ from Jism, ‘Kangna Re’ and ‘Dheere Jalna’ from Paheli. His style varies with each film. In one of his early interviews, he admitted to be inspired by K.V. Mahadevan, M.S. Viswanathan, S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman, Bhimsen Joshi, Ilaiyarraja and some more. Well versed in films, he knows what will work on screen and has given compositions which have appealed to a great many people.

Conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos works in many different genres including opera, symphonic repertoire, film with live orchestra, music theatre and composition. He travels all over the world conducting orchestras across the U.S., Hong Kong  Philharmonic and the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Kitsopoulos has trained in conducting with Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Commissiona, Gustav Meier and his principal teacher Vincent La Selva. He has studied piano with Marienka Michna, Chandler Gregg, Edward Edson and Sophia Rosoff. In 2023-2024, he will conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Pacific, New Jersey, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Santa Barbara and San Francisco symphonies.

New Jersey Symphony is changing the history of orchestra, and  has won both the Emmy and Grammy Awards. NJS has proved it strongly believes in diversity and inclusion by bringing local artists and to a new audience with untrained ears in classical music throughout New Jersey, particularly in Newark.

With a mission to connect with the people and diverse communities of New Jersey, NJS brings live symphonic music. It provides entertainment as well as hands-on educational experiences. Through its community programming, NJS reaches a wide selection of audiences.

Xian Zhang, NJS Music Director and Daniel Bernard Roumain, composer, violinist, educator and social-justice advocate have together brought innovative programming for diverse communities.