LACO at the Movies: An Evening of Disney Silly Symphonies on June 4

Do you enjoy watching classic Disney movies? Then you will enjoy seeing the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) showcase the interplay of music and film with “LACO @ the Movies: An Evening of Disney Silly Symphonies” on Saturday, June 4 at 7 pm at the historic Orpheum Theatre movie palace in downtown Los Angeles.

“LACO @ the Movies: An Evening of Disney Silly Symphonie”s is a program of dazzling and delightful Academy Award^®– winning animation created by Walt Disney Studios between 1929 and 1939. The orchestral scores from the classic Disney movies will be performed live by Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and led by six-time Emmy^® award-winning composer Mark Watters.

“LACO @ the Movies: An Evening of Disney Silly Symphonies” opens with The Skeleton Dance (1929), the first Silly Symphony short produced and directed by Walt Disney, starring four music-making and dancing skeletons in a macabre graveyard with a score by Carl Stalling based on the foxtrot, a popular dance beat of the era, set in a minor key.

LACO at the Movies: An Evening of Disney Silly Symphonies on June 7

photo credit: ©Disney

Also shown are Flowers and Trees (1932), the first commercial short produced in color using the then-new Technicolor three-strip process and featuring a pastoral symphonic score by Bert Lewis and Frank Churchill, which became a critical success and won the first Academy Award^®for Animated Short Subject; Three Little Pigs (1933), a musical sensation scored by Stalling that won a 1934 Academy Award^® for Best Animated Short Film and was named to the National Film Registry in 2007 for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”; and the Academy Award^®-winning The Old Mill (1937), the first short to experiment with animation and camera techniques utilizing the multiplane camera, which added a dimensionality not previously seen in animated film and was later used in the iconic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

photo credit: ©Disney

Other featured Silly Symphony shorts include The Country Cousin (1936), performed with live music for the first time since it was produced 80 years ago. Winner of the Best Animated Short Academy Award^® in 1937, this film is based on the Aesop Fable “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” with a sophisticated musical score by Harline. Also shown is the 1939 color version of The Ugly Duckling, based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, which was the last Silly Symphony produced by the studio and garnered an Academy Award^® for Best Short Subject (a black and white version was produced in 1931).

photo credit: ©Disney

The evening concludes with Music Land (1935), featuring a brilliant and virtuosic score that pits the Land of Symphony against the Isle of Jazz for a unique Disney “take” on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

photo credit: ©Disney

Tickets for LACO @ The Movies: An Evening of Disney Silly Symphonies

The magical event for adults and children six and older benefits education and concert programs of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Film tickets for “LACO @ The Movies: An Evening of Disney Silly Symphonies” start at $38 and are available at laco.org or by calling 800 745 3000. For in-person sales, The Orpheum box office is open on Wednesdays only, 1 to 7 pm.

The Orpheum Theatre is located at 842 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014.

Happy Field Tripping!

Jilleen