Maricopa Music Circle will add its own brand of musical grace to the catered Lobby Oscars® Viewing Party at Ultrastar Multi-tainment Center on Feb. 28, 4-6 p.m.

Ultrastar invited MMC to be the music feature at its black-tie Oscars Viewing Party based upon their earlier collaboration in December 2015 for the opening of the new Star Wars film, a hugely successful 13-hour Friday-Saturday musical marathon of John Williams themes from the entire Star Wars series, preceded by an appearance by MMC on Fox 10 News Live.

For the Academy Awards, the orchestra will perform many memorable movie themes. These include great melodies such as “Schindler’s List” theme, Henry Mancini’s “Moon River,” David Raksin’s piercing melody from “Laura,” Williams’ stirring music from “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” plus the soaring majesty of “Jurassic Park” and theme from “E.T.,” along with jazz greats, and even one or two classic staples that have shown up in films over the years (like Debussy’s Clair de Lune, Chopin’s famous Eb Nocturne, and Edvard Grieg’s “Hall of the Mountain King”).

Following the Viewing Party, the Oscar Awards Ceremony will be screened in Theater 1. For pricing and other details consult the box office and website of Ultrastar Ak-Chin Theaters.

MMC is the city’s original 15-piece chamber orchestra, unique because it performs standard orchestral music and popular favorites entirely without a conductor. The orchestra’s dedicated musicians play every type of standard orchestral instrument, ranging from piccolo to harp to tuba. Every instrumentalist in this large ensemble serves as coach and supervisor several times each season, and the orchestra produces a rich, colorful and true symphonic sound.

The Feb. 28 performance is a prelude to Maricopa Music Circle’s April 2 Saturday evening “Dancing into Springtime” concert at Ultrastar.

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