Philharmonic blending movie music, trivia

The Las Vegas Philharmonic is doing something unique for an orchestra: giving audience members the chance to get onstage with them during a live concert.

"It's a unique concept in the presentation of a pop concert," conductor and musical director David Itkin says of the Philharmonic's Saturday concert, "A Night at the Movies." He's not turning over his baton or inviting anyone to blow a horn but you could get a chance to sit onstage.

The orchestra will perform several popular movie themes, including music from "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Pirates of the Caribbean," and James Bond movies, among others. They will perform a piece that Itkin is certain no one will know, a musical score he wrote for the straight to video film "Sugar Creek" that was released in 2007.

During breaks in the music, audience members will be invited onstage to sit on a game show-like panel, Itkin says. They will get to answer movie trivia questions with winners receiving prizes.

This is the first season for the trivia contest, Itkin says, but he first introduced the program in Arkansas 10 years ago.

"At the time, it was just a theory. I didn't know how it was going to play out," Itkin says. "It turned out to be way more fun than I had imagined."

Originally, Itkin thought the fun would come from the contest questions and prize-winning. The real fun, he says, is in the answers people give.

"It's the unexpected nature of what happens when you bring civilians up onstage," Itkin says. "You don't know what they're going to say."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett @reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.