03 Feb 2025 When there’s something strange coming to your stage, Who Ya Gonna Call?
By Carol Rolf
It’s been 40 years since Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis hit the big screen in the blockbuster movie “Ghostbusters.” They will be hunting ghosts again at 7 p.m. Feb. 8 as UCA Public Performances and the Conway Symphony Orchestra join forces to present “Ghostbusters in Concert,” a screening of the original movie with music by a live orchestra, in Reynolds Performance Hall at the University of Central Arkansas.

It’s also been 40 years since the CSO was founded by community music supporters in the early 1980s, presenting its debut concert in 1984. Two more anniversaries should be noted as well: the 20th anniversary of Israel “Izzy” Getzov joining the CSO, now serving as its music director, and the 25th anniversary of UCA Public Appearances presenting events in the Reynolds Performance Hall, opening with a sold-out concert Sept. 15, 2000, by the late Ray Charles.
“We are thrilled to bring ‘Ghostbusters in Concert’ with the Conway Symphony Orchestra as they both celebrate their monumental 40th anniversary,” said Amanda Horton, executive director of UCA Public Appearances. “We are very fortunate to have the Conway Symphony Orchestra in our community as they continually provide our audiences with exceptional musical opportunities. Conductor Israel Getzov is a talented artist and leader who ensures that we have quality symphonic experiences.”
Getzov said this is not the first time the CSO has done a film concert.
“We’ve done the full movie versions of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (2017 live action version), as well as ‘Batman’ (1984 version),” he said. “We’ve also done film shows with clips of Pixar films and one with movies scored by Danny Elfman. So this is our third full-length movie, our fifth show involving the movie screen and the orchestra, and maybe our ninth or 10th collaboration with UCA Public Appearances at Reynolds.
“When Amanda approached me about collaborating with UCA Public Appearance for ‘Ghostbusters,’ I thought, ‘Yeah, that would be fun,’ but the more I delved into it, I found that Elmer Bernstein wrote the score. He is a legend from the ‘70s and ‘80s for his musical compositions.”

“Ghostbusters in Concert” features Ivan Reitman’s two-time Oscar and two-time Golden Globe-nominated film “Ghostbusters” and Elmer Bernstein’s Grammy-nominated score, along with Ray Parker Jr.’s Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping theme song “Ghostbusters.”
The movie screen is “very large and sort of above and behind the orchestra,” Getzov said. “The actual movie is playing on the screen, and the audience will hear all of the original dialog and sound effects through the speakers,” he said. “But they take out the music from the sound mix, and the orchestra performs it live. As far as the musicians go, they have the sheet music on their stands, and they play it whenever I give them a cue and conduct them. It’s my job to sync the musicians up with the music using a small monitor that only I can see.”
Getzov started his musical career with the violin at age 3 and later studied viola, piano and percussion. He has a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from what was then the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and a Master of Music in conducting from Cleveland Institute of Music.
As a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he performed with many renowned conductors. As a chamber musician, he was a founding member of the Rockefeller String Quartet that presented more than 200 concerts throughout Arkansas. He now holds a tenured professorship at UCA and regularly leads clinics at conservatories and music schools in the U.S., Asia and South America. He previously held the positions of associate conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Tianjin Philharmonic Orchestra in Tianjin, China, which is the resident orchestra of the Tianjin Grand Theater.
He is also music director of the Little Rock Winds and artistic adviser to the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santa Cruz in Bolivia. “The past 20 years have gone by in a flash,” Getzov said.
“The orchestra began as a group of local musicians who simply wanted to play together,” he said. “When I took the artistic reins 20 years ago, I saw the potential for the CSO to evolve into a professionalized ensemble, focusing on creating dynamic and enjoyable concerts for our audiences. Through our unique partnership with UCA, we’ve become the Arkansas premier training ground for orchestral musicians. This collaboration brings together our phenomenal professional musicians with the state’s top musicians-in-training at UCA. UCA has been essential to our success, as well as the unwavering support of the CSO’s patrons and fans who have sustained our work throughout the years.”