HOCUS POCUS

FILM WITH ORCHESTRA

Friday, October 31, 2025 at 7:30 pm

Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 7:30 pm

ALLEN-BRADLEY HALL

Emil de Cou, conductor

In Concert Live to Film

Starring

Bette Midler

Sarah Jessica Parker

Kathy Najimy

Directed by Kenny Ortega

Produced by David Kirschner

Steven Haft

Screenplay by Mick Garris

Neil Cuthbert

Story by David Kirschner

Mick Garris

Executive Producer Ralph Winter

Score by John Debney

Additional Music by

James Horner

Brock Walsh

“I Put a Spell on You”

Music and

Lyrics

by Jay Hawkins

Arranged by Marc Shaiman

Musical Arrangements by Marc Shaiman

Choreography

Peggy Holmes

Kenny Ortega

CAST

Winifred

Sarah

Mary

Dani

Allison

BIRCH

VINESSA SHAW

Emily AMANDA SHEPHERD

Ernie (“Ice”) LARRY BAGBY III

Jay

Billy Butcherson

Headless Billy Butcherson

Thackery

Today’s performance lasts approximately 2 hours, including a 20-minute intermission. The performance is a presentation of the feature film Hocus Pocus with a live performance of the film’s score. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the end credits. Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts © All rights reserved Film

SARAH JESSICA PARKER

Guest Artist Biographies

EMIL DE COU

Emil de Cou is the music director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet and a frequent guest with leading orchestras across the country Following his 2000 debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, he was appointed associate conductor, leading the NSO on national tours and in performances at the U S Capitol He has been a familiar presence at the Kennedy Center since his first appearance there in 1988

Renowned for his innovative programming, de Cou has conducted world premiere film-with-orchestra performances, including The Wizard of Oz, and created groundbreaking collaborations with NASA These projects include Gustav Holst’s The Planets with newly released space imagery narrated by Leonard Nimoy and “Human Spaceflight: The Kennedy Legacy,” marking the 50th anniversary of President John F Kennedy’s call to land a man on the moon For this work, NASA awarded de Cou its Exceptional Public Achievement Medal, making him the first musician to receive the honor de Cou served as conductor of the American Ballet Theatre at the invitation of Mikhail Baryshnikov, leading performances at the Metropolitan Opera House and on national and international tours His recordings include Elliot Goldenthal’s Othello for Varèse Sarabande, Debussy Rediscovered for Arabesque, featuring previously unrecorded works by Debussy, and the first recording of Charles Griffes’s The Kairn of Koridwen

de Cou has appeared with many of the nation’s major orchestras He made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Pops and served as principal pops conductor of the San Francisco Symphony

Born in Los Angeles, de Cou studied conducting with Daniel Lewis at the University of Southern California and with Leonard Bernstein at the Hollywood Bowl He lives in San Francisco and Seattle with his husband, conductor Leif Bjaland

Guest Artist Biographies

JOHN DEBNEY

Throughout his legendary career, composer John Debney has seen himself in equal demand for holiday classics such as Hocus Pocus and Elf, tentpoles like Iron Man 2, The Jungle Book, and The Greatest Showman, and the powerful epic The Passion of the Christ, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score Debney’s key to success is his immense versatility, composing for comedies (Bruce Almighty, Liar, Liar), action (Predators, The Scorpion King), horror (End of Days, Dream House), romance (Marry Me, Valentine’s Day), and family films (Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) with the same confidence and panache

His recent projects include Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids: Armageddon for Netflix, Paramount Pictures’s Tom Brady-produced 80 for Brady, Apple+ and Skydance Animation’s Luck, Universal’s Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez, and Disney+’s Hocus Pocus 2 Upcoming projects include Kevin Costner’s 2-part western epic Horizon: An American Saga for New Line Cinemas, Columbia Pictures’s Garfield starring Chris Pratt, Paramount Pictures’s Under the Boardwalk, Netflix’s In Your Dreams, and Amazon Prime’s Space Cadet

Born in Glendale, California, Debney studied music composition at the California Institute of the Arts and soon afterward began his career orchestrating and composing scores for Walt Disney Studios and various television series He won his first Emmy Award in 1990 for the main theme for the series The Young Riders and has since won three additional Emmy Awards and received a total of seven nominations, with his latest being Disney+’s smash hit Hocus Pocus 2 in 2023 Debney has also worked with industry titan Seth MacFarlane on numerous episodes of his sci-fi space series The Orville, utilizing nearly 100-piece orchestras to record his bombastic adventure scores His first foray into video game scoring — Sony’s 2007 medieval adventure Lair — resulted in a BAFTA nomination and a Best Original Score for a Video Game award from The International Film Music Critics Association

Debney has collaborated with acclaimed directors as diverse as Jon Favreau, Kevin Costner, Robert Rodriguez, David E Talbert, Harmony Korine, Kat Coiro, Brenda Chapman, Mel Gibson, Peggy Holmes, the late Garry Marshall, Adam Shankman, Kenny Ortega, and the late Ivan Reitman In 2005, he was the youngest recipient of ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Career Achievement Award

2025 26 SEASON

KEN-DAVID MASUR

Music Director

Polly and Bill Van Dyke Music Director Chair

EDO DE WAART

Music Director Laureate

BYRON STRIPLING

Principal Pops Conductor

Stein Family Foundation Principal Pops Conductor Chair

RYAN TANI

Associate Conductor

CHERYL FRAZES HILL

Chorus Director

Margaret Hawkins Chorus Director Chair

TIMOTHY J. BENSON

Assistant Chorus Director

FIRST VIOLINS

Jinwoo Lee, Concertmaster, Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair

Ilana Setapen, First Associate Concertmaster, Thora M. Vervoren First Associate Concertmaster Chair

Jeanyi Kim, Associate Concertmaster

Alexander Ayers

Autumn Chodorowski

Yuka Kadota

Elliot Lee

Dylana Leung

Kyung Ah Oh

Lijia Phang

Vinícius Sant’Ana**

Yuanhui Fiona Zheng

SECOND VIOLINS

Jennifer Startt, Principal, Andrea and Woodrow Leung Principal Second Violin Chair

Ji-Yeon Lee, Assistant Principal (2nd chair)

Hyewon Kim, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Heejeon Ahn

Lisa Johnson Fuller

Clay Hancock

Paul Hauer

Sheena Lan**

Janis Sakai**

Yiran Yao

VIOLAS

Victor de Almeida, Principal, Richard O. and Judith A. Wagner Family Principal Viola Chair

Samantha Rodriguez, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair), Friends of Janet F. Ruggeri Assistant Principal Viola Chair

Alejandro Duque, Acting Assistant Principal (3rd chair)

Elizabeth Breslin

Georgi Dimitrov

Nathan Hackett

Michael Lieberman**

Erin H. Pipal

CELLOS

Susan Babini, Principal, Dorothea C. Mayer Principal Cello Chair

Shinae Ra, Assistant Principal (2nd chair)

Scott Tisdel, Associate Principal Emeritus

Madeleine Kabat

Peter Szczepanek

Peter J. Thomas

Adrien Zitoun

BASSES

Principal, Donald B. Abert Principal Bass Chair

Andrew Raciti, Acting Principal

Nash Tomey, Acting Assistant Principal (2nd chair)

Brittany Conrad Broner McCoy

Paris Myers

HARP

Julia Coronelli, Principal, Walter Schroeder Principal Harp Chair

FLUTES

Sonora Slocum, Principal, Margaret and Roy Butter Principal Flute Chair

Heather Zinninger, Assistant Principal

Jennifer Bouton Schaub

PICCOLO

Jennifer Bouton Schaub

OBOES

Katherine Young Steele, Principal, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra League Principal Oboe Chair

Kevin Pearl, Assistant Principal

Margaret Butler

ENGLISH HORN

Margaret Butler, Philip and Beatrice Blank English Horn Chair in memoriam to John Martin

CLARINETS

Todd Levy, Principal, Franklyn Esenberg Principal Clarinet Chair

Jay Shankar, Assistant Principal, Donald and Ruth P. Taylor Assistant Principal Clarinet Chair

Besnik Abrashi

E-FLAT CLARINET

Jay Shankar

BASS CLARINET

Besnik Abrashi

BASSOONS

Catherine Van Handel, Principal, Muriel C. and John D. Silbar Family

Principal Bassoon Chair

Rudi Heinrich, Assistant Principal

Matthew Melillo

CONTRABASSOON

Matthew Melillo

HORNS

Matthew Annin, Principal, Krause Family Principal

French Horn Chair

Krystof Pipal, Associate Principal

Dietrich Hemann, Andy Nunemaker French Horn Chair

Darcy Hamlin

Dawson Hartman

TRUMPETS

Matthew Ernst, Principal, Walter L. Robb Family Principal Trumpet Chair

David Cohen, Associate Principal, Martin J. Krebs Associate Principal Trumpet Chair

Tim McCarthy, Fred Fuller Trumpet Chair

TROMBONES

Megumi Kanda, Principal, Marjorie Tiefenthaler Principal Trombone Chair

Kirk Ferguson, Assistant Principal

BASS TROMBONE

John Thevenet, Richard M. Kimball

Bass Trombone Chair

TUBA

Robyn Black, Principal, John and Judith Simonitsch Tuba Chair

TIMPANI

Dean Borghesani, Principal

Chris Riggs, Assistant Principal

PERCUSSION

Robert Klieger, Principal

Chris Riggs

PIANO

Melitta S. Pick Endowed Piano Chair

PERSONNEL

Antonio Padilla Denis, Director of Orchestra Personnel

Paris Myers, Assistant Manager of Orchestra Personnel

LIBRARIANS

Paul Beck, Principal Librarian, James E. Van Ess Principal Librarian Chair

Matthew Geise, Assistant Librarian & Media Archivist

PRODUCTION

Tristan Wallace, Production Manager/Live Audio

Lisa Sottile, Production Stage Manager

* Leave of Absence 2025.26 Season

** Acting member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra 2025.26 Season