Harry Potter to be Featured in Concert Series; Has New Home

Harry Potter fans have even more to celebrate as CineConcerts has announced that the company has partnered with Warner Brothers Consumer Products to perform a concert series featuring every Harry Potter movie made states Variety. Audiences will have the luxury of re-viewing a Harry Potter movie with a live symphony orchestra performing the entire score of the film while they watch.

Each of the Harry Potter films have been remastered to only include the dialogue and sound effects. Any musical score will be played by a live orchestra while the film will be presented on a 40-foot screen. “All the music is pulled out of the film, so that’s one of the interesting challenges — mixing the live music against the dialogue and the effects,” says CineConcerts president Justin Freer.

The first performance in The Harry Potter Film Concert Series will be Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to be presented at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra doing the honors of performing the score on June 23, 2016. The tour will then continue with performances in San Diego, Nashville, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids and Silicon areas.

Showing movies with a live orchestra isn’t new. Other films have had the same royal treatment from classic Bugs Bunny cartoons to Psycho and from Disney/Pixar shorts to Star Wars. And CineConcerts isn’t new to the game either as they have performed movie/concerts for Gladiator, The Godfather, It’s a Wonderful Life and others including its current run of Star Trek.

Of course, of the best reasons to attend such of performance is so younger audiences can learn to appreciate orchestra music and what better way to start than with Harry Potter?

“This is a wonderfully unique franchise to celebrate,” said Freer, who’s also a producer and conductor of the series. “The ‘Harry Potter’ film series is one of those once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomena that continues to delight millions of fans around the world. We now have an opportunity to add to the following,” he said.

The other big news regarding the Harry Potter universe is the countdown to the opening of the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening in early April at Universal Studios Hollywood. After the enormous success of the two other Wizarding Worlds in Orlando, Florida dna Osaka, Japan, fans on the West Coast have been counting the days to when they too could become a wizard.

Eric Goldman from IGN was one of the first to see this new “world” first hand and reported his experiences this week. “I got a look at what to expect from the new Wizarding World this week, including several interesting tweaks and changes from some of the specifics at the Orlando location.”

The website features a slideshow of some of the highlights featured within The Wizarding World of Harry Potter including Hogwarts Castle with Arthur Weasley’s car “parked” in front of it. A dragon skeleton hangs inside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, mandrakes are growing in the school’s greenhouse and it will appear that school is in session as Durmstrang and Beaux Batons students walk around the school grounds.

Hogsmeade village is complete with snow on the rooftops and frost on the windows which is a real feat to accomplish in Southern California. Among the shops you’ll find there are Brews and Stews, a shop not featured in the Orlando version of this land. The Magic Neep, the Dominic Maestro and Wiseacre’s Wizarding euipment stores are also here, but hardcore Harry Potter fans will note that it sits in a different part of the Orlando location. And of course, you can’t have a Hogsmeade without a Ollivander’s wand shop.

The land also features tours of Dumbledore’s office, the Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster, the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, Hagrid’s Hut and a photo op area of the Hogwart’s Express Car that features props from the original Harry Potter movies.

CNN did a feature as well about the food that can be found in the new area of Universal Studios Hollywood including Honeydukes sweet shop (where you can find chocolate-covered frogs and jelly beans), the Three Broomsticks restaurant and Hogs Head pub where they will serve Butterbeer, which is a butterscotch-flavored non-alcoholic beverage.

[Photo by Valerie Macon / Getty Images]