Ciao Bella!: 🎼 Philadelphia Orchestra's "Fantasia"

Hi there and Happy Monday! Today I want to share a little about a wonderful performance David and I went to see last weekend in Philadelphia. It's the 80th anniversary of Disney's Fantasia and the Philadelphia Orchestra did a fantastic job playing along to some of the movie's most iconic scenes.

Can you believe Fantasia is 80 years old? Just think of all the people, all over the world, who've watched this movie and been introduced to some of the most special works of classical music. The movie was the brain child of Walt Disney and Philadelphia Orchestra's musical director at the time, Leopold Stokowski, who wanted to make a "visual musical concert". The soundtrack for the movie was played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it was surreal seeing them perform it live.

The conductor, Aram Demirjian, did a fantastic job giving us little snippets of history and banter in between numbers, and they even played a number from Fantastia 2000 as well as one of my favorites that never actually made it into the film, Debussy's Clair de lune.

The show was at the gorgeous Verizon Hall inside the Kimmel Center, and being a Young Friend of the Orchestra, we were able to snag front row seats for a steal! It was so fun being front and center, and being so close to the musicians made it very immersive.

It was a lovely afternoon spent learning more about two of my favorite things, classical music and Disney! Walt Disney was such a dreamer and never let anything get in the way of his imagination, a quality I very much admire and respect. I always enjoy seeing the Philadelphia Orchestra perform and I can't wait until the next show!

Note-If you live in the area or have the Simple Radio app, you can listen to the Philadelphia Orchestra's concerts! They are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sundays at 1pm, and on WRTI HD 2 on Mondays at 7pm. You can also visit the satation's website, www.wrti.org to listen live.