Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra

New animated film featuring the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack from composer Mason Bates
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“A truly magnificent achievement…In the art of marrying music with animation, Philharmonia Fantastique is the biggest step forward since Fantasia itself.”

– John Williams

The Making of the Orchestra

Philharmonia Fantastique is a 25-minute concerto for orchestra & animated film that follows a magical Sprite on a musical journey through the instruments of the orchestra. By the film’s end, the families of the orchestra overcome their differences to demonstrate “unity from diversity” in a spectacular finale.

Philharmonia Fantastique was written by Mason Bates, and co-created with multi Academy Award winning Gary Rydstrom, and Academy Award nominated animation director Jim Capobianco.

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About the Film

Featured Performances & Events

Selected opportunities to see Philharmonia Fantastique live. For full listings, please visit the Events page.

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Sprite’s World

An exciting dive inside Philharmonia Fantastique to gain a deeper understanding of the orchestra and orchestral music through visual storytelling and hands-on activities.

Enter Sprite’s World

In the spirit of such self-referential educational works for young listeners as Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” or Lenny Bernstein’s expository outings on programs including “Omnibus,” Bates’s work is a section-by-section guided tour of the modern orchestra.

– The Washington Post

“It’s a noble enterprise, with deeper ideals about human diversity and unity. Bates is, as ever, an engaging musical storyteller.”

-BBC Music Magazine

“Music itself has always been a marriage of technology and art. We use both new and old technologies to explore how music comes together, how radically different sounds and techniques converge into the full sound of an orchestra.”

– Director, Gary Rydstrom, Winner of 7 Academy Awards and 2 BAFTAs

“Mason Bates’ genre-defying works demonstrate considerable artistry.”

– Gramophone

“Mason Bates, Musical America’s 2018 Composer of the Year, is carrying a lot on his shoulders. At a time when classical music is eagerly, anxiously, even desperately trying to connect with a younger generation, Bates is one of the rare composers who is at once popular, hip, and active at the large classical-music institutions-opera houses and orchestras-that are having the hardest time winning young audiences.”

– Musical America Worldwide

“its sumptuous sonic palette, arresting visuals (imagine a multidimensional Eric Carle) and relentlessly clever turns of phrase (such as the punchline stretch of “tuning” that teases its closing moments) is the kind of musical experience that could easily light up some young imaginations”