MAURY LAWS & THE FVSO When veteran musician Maury Laws and his wife Karen decided to move from New York City with their young son in the mid-1980s, they wanted to be near a good symphony orchestra. If he wrote some more music, Maury thought, he wanted to be able to hear it played. The Fox Valley Symphony – and the fact that Karen, an NBC News producer, was a native of Kaukauna – drew them to Appleton, and the Fox Valley has been the better for it! A composer and arranger for many top recording artists of the ’50s and ’60s, Maury is best known as the musical director for the Rankin/Bass animated television production of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which has aired since 1964, and more than thirty similar specials that followed. s F VSO Conductor Brian Groner presents an award of appreciation to Maury Laws at the October 2003 concert in his honor.
Symphony conductor for the Arts Alliance’s POPS Goes to the Movies. River
DID YOU KNOW? Maury wrote the brief Fanfare that the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center uses to call people to their seats prior to showtime! He was asked to turn that into a longer piece for the PAC’s 10th anniversary and the FVSO included Curtain Call in its November 2013 concert.
CHRIS BRUBECK
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Locally, his contributions are also legendary. Already in 1986, he was the Time Suite, which he wrote for a video salute to the Fox River produced by Karen, was premiered by the FVSO in 1996. His specially commissioned The Christmas Suite, adapted from his music composed for the Rankin/Bass specials, was first performed at the Symphony’s 2001 Holiday Concert. Local artists Janet Planet and John Harmon teamed up with the Symphony in 2003 for an all-Laws concert called A Tribute to Maury Laws. And a 2008 concert featured The Baseball Music Project, narrated by former New York Yankee Dave Winfield, which he co-wrote with the late Fred Sturm, head of the jazz program at Lawrence University.
QUIET HEROES:
A SYMPHONIC SALUTE TO THE FLAG RAISERS AT IWO JIMA 40th Anniversary
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March 31, 2007
On March 31, 2007, the FVSO premiered its commission (sponsored by Thrivent Financial) of Chris Brubeck’s “Quiet Heroes: A Symphonic Salute to the Flag Raisers at Iwo Jima.” Local World War II U.S. Navy Corpsman and Iwo Jima flag raiser John Bradley was honored at the performance, and actor Wilfred Brimley narrated the piece. The composition loosely follows the bestseller “Flags of Our Fathers” written by James Bradley (son of John and Betty Bradley), and the movie thereafter released by Clint Eastwood in 2006. The FVSO also partnered with the Military Veterans Museum to feature WWII memorabilia in the lobby.
s T he Post Crescent, March 27, 2007