Hark! What force is with yon’ Jedi Orchestra? Seated in formation, dressed formally, brandishing fearsomely shiny instruments, the Jedi Orchestra are young whippersnappers, but the force of their music is mighty. Caution, lest they enchant our senses! Lightsabers, ready! Princess Leia earmuffs, on! Relax, brave Music Man readers, I’ll go easy on Star Wars jokes and, even if you have no desire to be teleported into the Star Wars franchise, there’s a human interest, feel-good side to this story.
If you’ve never seen Star Wars, you’re probably familiar with Star Wars music without necessarily being aware of it. It’s everywhere, from the background music in the restaurant at the Citadel in Cairo to the soundtrack of the TV show playing at a car dealership in Mexico City. If you like Star Wars, this soundtrack selection performed by the Stanisław Moniuszko School of Symphony Music Orchestra, Poland, will put a smile on your Darth Vader mask. The conductor is Andrzej Kucybała.
The video has 31M views. Pete the Fuzzball explains: “This is the video you come to when you want to remember what it felt like to just love Star Wars.” Super Boi David says, “I’m so impressed that everyone is so young and yet they all sound like expert musicians, perfectly in sync and very well executed like right out of the recording studio.” Jokes about the Force being strong with the Jedi Orchestra recur throughout the YouTube comments, but we won’t stoop to that :).
David Z Wisohn becomes emotional. “I had tears watching and listening to these young people perform this epic music SO well. It’s meant so much to me over the past 45 years, and I feel privileged to live at the same time in history as the great John Williams,” he writes. Wisohn is moved by young people keeping the music he loves alive. I will elaborate on this point after our next video which features the magical Hogwarts Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrzej Kucybała.
Evelyn JN asks, “Is this a high school orchestra? They look like it but definitely do not sound like it.” Yes, it is the Symphony Orchestra of the Stanisław Moniuszko School (again). The naming of the orchestra according to the concert programme (Star Wars, Harry Potter) is a device used by the poster of the video, the Akademia Filmu i Telewizji (a film school offering two-year film courses since 1991). The Academy’s YouTube channel specializes in videos of school symphony orchestras made by Academy students and graduates, along with selected diploma films by their graduates. You might think this is a niche area.
By hosting student videos of Polish school symphony orchestras, the Academy YouTube channel has over one hundred and fifty million views and over three hundred and thirty thousand subscribers. It is the most popular Polish school/college on YouTube. Worldwide (the Academy claims), it is only surpassed by Berklee College of Music, Boston. This popularity is due to the high quality of the videos, but it also reflects the vibrancy of school symphony orchestra culture in Poland. This is heartwarming in an age when symphony orchestras are under pressure.
The Stanislaw Moniuszko School of Music’s symphony orchestra was established in the 1950’s in Bielsko Biala, Southern Poland. Joseph Wliu writes that the Orchestra is well-known in Europe. “Concerts arouse enormous public interest, tickets sell out, and audiences are consistently at capacity. Many talented musicians emerge from Moniuszko’s school of music.” The orchestra won the Polish Nationwide Music Schools’ Symphonic Orchestras Competitions of 2013 & 2015. May the force remain with it.
Discover the mesmerising performances of the Akademia Filmu i Telewizji. Their magical rendition of the Star Wars music is not one to miss. You can watch this captivating performance and many others on their YouTube Channel. Be enchanted by the force of their music!