Buzz on the Ann Arbor Concert!

There are two articles on David’s Ann Arbor show!  Both pieces are by Roger LeLievre.

Article #1:

In 2007, 16-year-old David Archuleta became one of the youngest contestants to compete on the TV talent competition “American Idol,” winding up as runner-up to David Cook after receiving 44 percent of over 97 million votes. David Archuleta’s self-titled album was released in late 2008, he’s toured the country with the “Idol” cast and, in September, won the Year in Music’s Rising Male Star Award at the American Latino Media Arts Awards. Besides his new “Christmas From the Heart” CD — a collection of holiday favorites such as “Silent Night” and “Ave Maria” — he’s writing songs for a new pop CD to be released next year. He spoke by phone to AnnArbor.com writer Roger LeLievre recently in advance of his Friday night concert at Hill Auditorium with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra.

Q: Where are you this morning?
A: I’m in Southern California, eating some cereal. … It’s Kashi, and I’ve mixed it in with some golden flax.

Q: How you are feeling about performing with a full symphony? Is this a first for you?
A: I’m excited. I’ve been able to perform with a symphony before, but never Christmas music and never a whole entire show like this. … It’s so amazing to see how so many people come together and make a song. It really makes such a huge difference and makes it so much greater. It’s really neat.

Q: How do you prepare? You’re there, the orchestra is here.
A: There isn’t a whole lot of time to rehearse it. The songs I already know, and I will have a little bit of time to go through them with the orchestra. I’m really excited to hear the arrangements. (The songs) are going to be coming to life performed with a live orchestra and that’s really exciting for me and I am really happy to be able to be able to get to do it.

Q: How has life been since ‘Idol?’ Are things less of a whirl, or more?
A: It hasn’t really stopped. ‘American Idol’ was just a year ago, so much has happened since then. I can’t believe I went through that and all the extremes I had, from the beginning of those auditions where I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to now, having released an album last year and now the Christmas album and Christmas tour. It’s like, wow — I did not think I would have moved this much since last year. It’s just crazy. I didn’t think I would be going on tour this year and performing and getting to work on music and a Christmas album over the summer, which is kind of funny, working on a Christmas album in the summer. It’s made Christmas last a lot longer this year. It’s just go, go, go but it’s nice. I’m productive with myself and that’s a good feeling.

Q: Tell me more about the Christmas CD.
A: This is my Christmas gift to all the fans. I wanted to keep it really heartfelt and share what I feel is important about Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday first of all, and Christ’s birth is really important to me, and just that whole thing of celebrating that and celebrating his life is really special. … It’s really neat to see the (Christmas album) come out now. I spent all summer working on this, I know what goes on with the details, and later it’s out on CD and people are listening to it. It’s so cool to think about that — they’re listening to what I’ve been working on all summer. I want people to leave with that whole spirit of Christmas and keep that with them after the show.

Q: Do you still tour with the ‘Idol’ folks?
A: I’ve been doing my own stuff, pretty much. We did the ‘American Idol’ tour last year, after that I’ve just done my own thing. I did a couple of shows with (winner) David Cook, there was one real cool show we did in Manila in the Philippines. It was great being able to perform with David Cook and go to the Philippines for the first time.

Q: What’s next for you when the tour is done? Do you have another pop CD in the works?
A: Yeah, that’s actually why I’m in L.A. right now. I’ve been writing a lot and traveling around, working in different places and working with different writers. It’s been a challenge trying to work on my own songwriting. It’s something I’ve always wanted to get better at doing and do more of. … When you’re part of a song’s creation, your personality comes into it and you have all that more of a connection to it. It’s just been great.

Q: Do you have a release date in mind?
A: No (he laughs). Right now the main focus is the Christmas tour.

Q: Will you be just playing Christmas music at the Ann Arbor concert?
A: I’ll have a few of the pop songs I’ll be adding to the show but it will mainly be about the Christmas music.

Q: It must be hard, touring over Thanksgiving. Is your family coming with you?
A: They’re not. I’ll have my band, crew and tour manager.

Q: Since it’s a Thanksgiving show, what are you thankful for this time of year?
A: I just have to be thankful for everything I’ve been able to experience. I owe that to God because I really feel like he’s been able to let me do all this. I am so thankful for that. I wouldn’t be here without him. … Another thing is family, for sure. Family and friends are so important, and they’re the ones who keep you sane. They let you know there is someone there for you and people care for you.

Article #2:

Santa isn’t the only celebrity coming to town this holiday season.

The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra will team up with “American Idol” singer David Archuleta on Friday night for a concert titled “Christmas From the Heart” at Hill Auditorium.

The concert is in support of Archuleta’s new, Yule-themed CD of the same name. Tickets went on sale at the end of October, and more than one-third of Hill’s available 3,500 seats sold out in the first week, attracting fans from as far away as San Francisco.

The concert, an addition to the symphony’s regular season, is a bit unusual since the performing arts have been among those especially hard-hit by the economy.

“Where other orchestras are cutting concerts to balance budgets, we’re adding a concert,” said Dave Siefkes, the A2SO marketing director. “Symphonies around the country are all trying different things, they are more willing to look beyond the traditional. … The thing that drove it for me was trying to get a broader audience.”

In addition to Christmas songs, Archuleta’s program will include his hit, “Crush,” as well as “Zero Gravity” and a few other non-holiday tunes. The symphony will offer “Sleigh Ride” and a selection from the “Nutcracker,” Siefkes added, “but mostly it’s David.”

The symphony is partnering with Radio Disney for the show, a first for both organizations that could include two more concerts in future years, said Siefkes. The score for the Ann Arbor performance was done by Disney especially for the show.

“They had some small scores for his Christmas album, but nothing like this,” Siefkes added. “It was a learning process for them. They basically orchestrated everything for us. It has never been performed before.”

Siefkes said interest has been strong from around the country. “Fan sites have been unbelievable about this because it is only (concert) on his tour with a symphony orchestra,” said Siefkes.

Siefkes said work on the Archuleta concert started last January with a sales call. “Radio Disney called on me trying to sell me some advertising. I had a great talk with their rep. It turned into me saying ‘You know, the symphony should do a concert with Disney.’ One of my ideas was we could perform the music live to ‘Fantasia.’”

Disney’s Detroit general manager came to Ann Arbor, heard the symphony perform, and was sold.

“They came out and saw the quality of the product,” Siefkes explained. The only thing that remained was to decide what to do. A brainstorming session followed.

“I’m a big ‘American Idol’ fan,” Siefkes admitted. David Archuleta was one name I threw out. They brought up other names, like Taylor Swift. I brought up Miley Cyrus. Miley was very expensive, Taylor was even more expensive.”

Although younger people know who Archuleta is, at least one member of the symphony found his generation gap showing.

“When we first told (conductor Arie Lipsky) that we were considering a show with David Archuleta, Arie said ‘Who’s he?’ (Then) all of his sudden his daughter is screaming in the background. And dad’s a rock star now. He’s conducting David Archuleta,” Siefkes said.

Although Siefkes wouldn’t say how much the A2SO had to pay for Archuleta, “this is the most we’re paying for a soloist ever … (but) I think we’ll sell it out.”

Siefkes said the concert will help the A2SO conclude the year on a high note.

“A lot of symphonies are down in attendance and subscriptions. We’re actually up, in fact we set a record this year for subscribers.” The previous record, he said, was 733 subscribers. This year, the A2SO has 963.

Ultimately, the show will be good for the symphony for several reasons.

“Money-wise and exposure-wise and reputation-wise, the fact of being able to work with the Disney company is great, the quality is superior and that was important to them, just like it was important to us,” Siefkes added.

He said the musicians are jazzed about the Christmas show.

“From what I’ve heard they are pretty excited. Some were very sad they were going to be out of town for Thanksgiving. Again, if they’ve got kids, they’re going to be the rock stars — and we’re adding services to the season for them, a chance to perform some more and get paid for it.”

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