John de Lancie - Music Career

Music Career

In the world of music, John de Lancie, Jr. has performed as narrator with a number of major orchestras including: Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis and the New York Philharmonic; Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; the National Symphony Orchestra and The Montreal Symphony. His repertoire includes: Peer Gynt, King David, The Bourgeois Gentleman, Lincoln Portrait, St. Joan, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oedipus Rex, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, The Soldier's Tale, The Nightingale, and Peter and the Wolf.

De Lancie was the host of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphonies for Youth for four years where he helped conceptualize the student concerts "Don't Educate–Stimulate". In addition, he's written and directed ten symphonic plays. These ninety-minute programs are fully staged productions with orchestra; titles include Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Bourgeois Gentleman, and The Abduction from the Seraglio. They were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras.

De Lancie makes frequent appearances with the Pasadena Symphony, which holds concerts of orchestrated music in the Fall and the Spring. In spring 2004, he gave pre-concert lectures where the symphony is held in Pasadena, California, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

He was also the writer, director, and host of First Nights, an adult concert series at Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic which explored the life and music of Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Prokofiev. These were fully integrated, fully staged productions. John de Lancie has performed and directed for L.A. Theater Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio, where the series The Plays the Thing originates. He recently returned from a national tour of the Scopes Monkey Trial. He was co-owner, with Leonard Nimoy, of Alien Voices; a production company devoted to the dramatization of classic science fiction.

In 2006, de Lancie made his opera directorial debut with The Atlanta Opera performing Puccini's "Tosca" on May 18 to May 21.

In September 2007, de Lancie provided dramatic narration to the Cleveland Orchestra's performance of Peer Gynt. He performed this role again with the National Symphony Orchestra in June 2008, under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy.