Bringing music and culture to life

Esin Aydingoz brings music to life.

In addition to her position as Assistant Chair of Berklee College of Music's Screen Scoring Department, Aydingoz is a composer, pianist and conductor. She will conduct the Orquesta Folclórica Nacional de México in Disney Pixar’s “Coco” Live-to-Film Concert on Tour at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Peace Center.

“I'm from Istanbul, Turkey, but I've been living in the U.S. ever since 2012,” she said. “I initially came here to attend Berklee College of Music as a student.”

After graduation, Aydingoz moved to Los Angeles and began working as a composer and conductor, though this tour is her “first big conducting gig.” She worked with similar Disney Live in Concert productions, including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “The Little Mermaid.” Her arrangement of “Paint It Black” on the Netflix show “Wednesday” was No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts.

But with “Coco,” Aydingoz is more than the conductor, she is also a fan.

“Oh, it’s the most beautiful movie,” she said. “‘Coco’ for me is special on so many levels. When I first moved to LA, I joined this organization called Society of Composers and Lyricists, which provides a lot of screenings and educational events for the newcomer composers. And before I even knew about this organization, my friends surprised me by taking me to a private screening of ‘Coco’ before it was available to the public. That's how I found out about this organization for which now I'm a board member. I love Disney music. My biggest dream is to score a big Disney Pixar movie like ‘Coco.’ The composer for this, Michael Giacchino, I have always looked up to him because he also did ‘Up’ and

‘Ratatouille’ and ‘Lost,’ which is not Disney, but it was a huge TV series.”

At the end of the “Coco” screening, Aydingoz met Giacchino – which turned into a funny and memorable moment.

“It's very, very emotional, and people tend to cry at the end,” she said. “So when I ended up meeting Michael Giacchino, I was a total mess.”

With Disney Pixar, the story is always the heart of the movie.

“I'm from another culture, so getting to experience another culture where there's a lot of importance given to family and music – it's so beautiful to witness,” Aydingoz said. “I think life and death, these kinds of topics, we try not to think about them, but they present it in such a fascinating and inspiring and beautiful way, that it's almost not scary anymore. I really applaud Disney for doing this kind of storytelling.”

On tour, the live score is performed by the 20-member Orquesta Folclórica Nacional de México, which was founded two years ago out of the Ballet Folclórica Nacional de México. Aydingoz said she is learning from them and embracing the celebration and fun they bring to the performance.

“They were using a lot of musicians for their dance shows, so two years ago, they decided to also turn this into an orchestra and use those musicians to help preserve Mexican culture by preserving their music and also their instruments,” Aydingoz said.

Though Aydingoz thrives on the creativity of composing, she said it can be lonely. And often, the work occurs so far in advance of when an audience can experience it, that it creates a bit of a disconnect. But her “Coco” experience brings a different kind of joy.

“What's so beautiful about conducting is when I'm doing it, and then the music hits the movie so perfectly in a comedic moment or in an action moment, I can hear the kids like ‘Oh!’ or they laugh, or they start singing along. And that's a whole other kind of energy,” she said.

AMP presents Disney Pixar’s Coco Live-to-Film Concert on Tour at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Peace Center. The performance features a screening of the complete film with Oscar® and Grammy®-winning composer Michael Giacchino’s musical score performed by the 20-member Orquesta Folclórica Nacional de México, conducted by Esin Aydingoz. For tickets and details, visit peacecenter.org.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Bringing music and culture to life