Insider Beat: Conductor Macy Schmidt on reliving girlhood through 'Barbie The Movie: In Concert'
Like most girls, Macy Schmidt, conductor of The Barbie Land Sinfonietta, grew up playing with and idolizing Barbies. She didn't completely recognize it at the time, but her attachment to the toy shaped her worldview as a first-generation Egyptian-American.
"When I think about Barbies as a kid, you know I have thick, brown curly hair — Arab hair. My mother tells me that when I was a little girl, I used to go to my hairdresser and I used to say, 'I want straight, long, blonde hair,'" she said.
Since then, both Schmidt and the brand have undergone massive transformations.
Schmidt has made it a point to channel her experiences into her music career, starting her own orchestra, made up of a majority of women of color. In her illustrious career, she holds the title as the first woman of color orchestrator in Broadway history.
The Barbie brand itself has made a mission to become more representative, pledging to become "more inclusive and mirror the world around us" in its diversity statement.
So when the opportunity presented itself for the orchestrator to collaborate with Mattel, especially in light of the "Barbie" movie, Schmidt seized it.
"To marry what the Sinfonietta is with a brand for whom that is their purpose statement feels like what all of the work building the Sinfonietta has been leading towards," she said.
This summer, "Barbie The Movie: In Concert," a live concert film experience, brings Warner Brothers Pictures' feature film and live music from The Barbie Land Sinfonietta — the project will be orchestrated and executive produced by Schmidt in more than 35 venues nationwide.
The event will offer a new spin on last year's sensation — the film's score will now be played by a live orchestra or ensemble, offering audiences an immersive experience. Last year, the Sinfonietta explored the live-to-film concert with "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Live," a format Schmidt believes highlights the orchestra.
"The orchestra is in the spotlight," said Schmidt. "They are the headliner … they're the thing that is being celebrated."
With this project, Schmidt said one of her goals was to recreate the energy that pervaded last year's "summer of girlhood," particularly in the way she felt "validated as a woman." The fan-to-fan experience of Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour served as a major source of inspiration.
"I've never been at a concert where I met so many people. I was in the bathroom line and there was a 6-year-old in front of me and a 60-year-old behind me," she said. "That feeling, of all of these things that are put down for being girly, are something magical and joyful to celebrate."
Above all else, Schmidt envisions these performance spaces as a place where young girls and women of color can be represented, feel empowered to pursue opportunities and confidently take up space in the spotlight. She wants the orchestra to be the form of representation that she didn't have growing up.
"I really hope this tour creates a space for people, for women, for men, for everyone," she said.
"Barbie the Movie: In Concert" comes to Holmdel on August 17.
