“Black Panther” Beats with Wakandan Life
By Nick Nicholas with Wes Hessel
“Marvel Studio’s Black Panther in Concert” at the Auditorium Theatre was an experience which will never be forgotten, just as we will never forego the heroes in the comics we as children enjoyed that took us to fantasy places made real. The Chicago Philharmonic, along with Senegalese talking drum legend Massamba Diop, who helped compose parts and sounds of the music, delivered the film’s Academy and Grammy award winning music score composed by Ludwig Göransson live, as the movie was shown in the legendary Auditorium.
It was an arts experience worth every beat of the talking drum’s sounds, integral to communication and rhythm for the people of Africa. The orchestra – brilliant, disciplined, and inspired – gave us a two-plus hour simulated ride to a futurist world intertwined with an ancient world of humanity that is just as representative today as it was then. It’s a marvel (pun intended) that music scores this heroic and divine are composed in our times, and Black Panther is a superhero that lives, dies, and is reborn in us all.
The film was a singular Marvel Studios cinematic accomplishment, but for the night the King of Talking Drum Massamba Diop was the black panther in the house, who made us hear and feel our hearts pumping beat after beat, ending in a standing ovation of musical exuberance, celebrating the importance of equality and unity in the life force of our time and culture. The next iteration of the Auditorium Philms Concert Series will be “’The Terminator’ Live in Concert” February 22nd, the U.S. premiere of the modern sci-fi classic performed with live orchestral score. For tickets or more information for this and other great events of concert and culture, please see www.auditoriumtheatre.org.
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