Legendary composer-conductor Joe Hisaishi will conduct a performance of his music from the films of Japan’s legendary Studio Ghibli in an extraordinary concert event at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, exclusive to Melbourne.
Saturday 29 February & Sunday 1 March 2020
Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Book Tickets
Hisaishi will conduct the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and MSO Chorus through the magical scores and heart-stirring montages from renowned films by renowned director Hayao Miyazaki including Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, which will play on a huge screen at the Bowl.
The concert will be complete with a full children’s choir and a marching band bringing the ground-breaking films to life on stage.
As long-standing friends and collaborators, composer Hisaishi and director Hayao Miyazaki have worked together for more than 30 years, including on nine films from renowned production house Studio Ghibli. Hisaishi is an eight-time winner of the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music. Other awards include a Hong Kong Film Award for “Best Original Film Score” and an Asian Film Award for “Best Original Music.” Hisaishi continues to compose and conduct today while also touring and selling out shows around the world.
About Joe Hisaishi
Joe Hisaishi, hailed by Pitchfork as “The John Williams of Japan”, has won countless awards for his achievements in composition and film scoring. He is eight-time winner of the Japanese Academy Award for Best Music; he was awarded the Japan Medal of Honour in 2009; and he has composed soundtracks for two Academy Award-winning films, Departures (2008) and Spirited Away (2002). Hisaishi’s body of work, comprised of nearly 100 film scores and solo albums, draws inspiration from the canon of American minimal music compositions, experimental electronic music, and European and Japanese classical music. He has scored all but one of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films, including three of the top five highest-grossing anime films worldwide.
Read more about Joe Hisaishi and the new collection Dream Songs: The Essential Joe Hisaishi.