First-ever Oscars concert planned for nominated music

The Oscars will, for the first time, hold a concert in Los Angeles featuring the songs and scores nominated for Hollywood's most prestigious prize, organizers said. The concert will be held on February 27, 2014, at Royce Hall, at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) said an internal email from organizers obtained by AFP Friday. The message was from the governors of the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Charles Fox, Arthur Hamilton and David Newman. They noted that, during this year's ceremony, in February, all the nominated songs were performed on stage "for the first time in a number of years. "That was a welcome return for the importance that original songs have always had in films," they wrote. But the musical scores "have not been performed on the Oscars in a fully realized way because of the length of the show", they added. At the concert, a symphony orchestra will perform an approximately 10-minute suite of extracts from each show, they explained. "Subject to availability, each original composer will conduct his/her own work." As for the songs, "it is our hope that either the original artists or the songwriter(s) will perform their own songs live." The goal is to make the concert, planned for the week before the award ceremony, an annual event. During the 85th Oscar ceremony this past February, the prize for best original score went to Mychael Danna for "Life of Pi," and the one for best song when to British singer Adele, for "Skyfall." The 86th Oscars are to be held March 2, 2014 in the Dolby Theater.