MOVIES AT THE SYMPHONY 2025/26 DISNEY IN CONCERT: TIM BURTON’S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS PERFORMED BY YOUR COLORADO SYMPHONY CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Friday, October 31, 2025 at 7:30pm Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 7:30pm Boettcher Concert Hall
Disney Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” In Concert Live to Film
Featuring the Voice Talents of: CHRIS SARANDON CATHERINE O’HARA KEN PAGE WILLIAM HICKEY GLENN SHADIX PAUL REUBENS COLORADO SYMPHONY IS PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY
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MOVIES AT THE SYMPHONY 2025/26 A BURTON/DI NOVI Production Music, Lyrics & Score by DANNY ELFMAN Based on a Story and Characters by TIM BURTON Adaptation by MICHAEL MCDOWELL Screenplay by CAROLINE THOMPSON Produced by TIM BURTON and DENISE DI NOVI Directed by HENRY SELICK Soundtrack available on WALT DISNEY RECORDS This film is rated “PG.” Today’s performance lasts approximately 1 hour and 36 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission. The performance is a presentation of the feature film Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas with a live performance of the film’s score. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain seated until the conclusion of the end credits.
Presentation licensed by Disney Concerts © All rights reserved.
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BIOGRAPHIES
DANNY ELFMAN, composer Danny Elfman, film composer, classical composer, singer-songwriter, and recording artist, has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores, as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall. Elfman has been Tim Burton’s composer for more than 35 years, having scored 17 Burton films such as Batman, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as well as music, lyrics and songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas for which he also sang the part of Jack Skellington. Elfman was also the lead singer and songwriter for the LA rock band Oingo Boingo for 17 years. Elfman has frequently collaborated with director Sam Raimi on films such as SpiderMan and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and with director Gus Van Sant on the Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk. Additionally, he wrote the music for the Men in Black film series franchise, the themes for the popular television series The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, Tales from the Crypt and more recently, Tim Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday. A native of Los Angeles, Elfman grew up loving film music. He traveled the world as a young man, absorbing its musical diversity. Elfman, known for being the leader of the band Oingo Boingo, came to the attention of a young Tim Burton and Paul Rubens, who asked him to write the score for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Thirty-seven years later, Elfman and Burton have forged one of the most fruitful composer-director collaborations in film history. Throughout his career, Elfman has been honored with four Academy Award nominations, three Emmy® Awards including ‘Outstanding Original Main Title Theme’ for Wednesday (2023), a GRAMMY® Award (1990), the Richard Kirk Award (2002), the Disney Legend Award (2015), the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award (2017), and the Society of Composer and Lyricists’ Lifetime Achievement Award (2022). Elfman has written nine symphonic concert works which are frequently performed throughout Europe and North America. Elfman’s orchestral concert works include: Serenada Schizophrana, a symphony commissioned by the American Composer’s Orchestra, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2005, Rabbit and Rogue, for the American Ballet Theater choreographed by Twyla Tharp, performed at The Metropolitan Opera house in 2008. In 2017 Elfman premiered his violin concerto “Eleven Eleven” written for, and performed by violinist Sandy Cameron, which had its world premiere in Prague and was released on Sony Classical records in 2019. The album also features a recording of his first Piano Quartet, commissioned and performed by the Philharmonic Piano Quartet Berlin.
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Elfman’s Percussion Quartet commissioned for Third Coast Percussion was recorded in October 2020. In March 2022, two of Elfman’s classical works had European world premieres: Percussion Concerto, written for, and performed by percussionist Colin Currie with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Cello Concerto, written for, and performed by cellist Gautier Capuçon with the Vienna Symphony. Elfman’s Percussion Concerto and Wunderkammer, a concerto for orchestra written for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (Aug 2022), recordings were released by Sony Classical in May 2024. Also for the concert stage, Elfman created Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton live orchestral concert, which premiered at Royal Albert Hall in 2013, and has since toured around the world and won two Emmys. He also began live performances with orchestra of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2015, which has since been performed around the world. Elfman composed the music for Cirque du Soleil’s show Iris (2011) written and directed by French choreographer Philippe Decouflé. In 2019 he composed the music for the Tony Nominated Broadway production of Taylor Mac’s play Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus directed by George C. Wolfe, starring Nathan Lane. In 2020 Elfman released his wildly ambitious double album Big Mess which combined edgy rock and symphonic strings and followed it with the release of Bigger. Messier. – a genre-defying collection of remixed and reimagined versions of songs from the record featuring collaborations with musicians such as Trent Reznor, Iggy Pop and more. The Big Mess project culminated with his critically acclaimed career-spanning 2022 Coachella concert: From Boingo, to Batman, to Big Mess and Beyond. He then presented an expanded version of the concert at back-to-back sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2022, and again in San Diego/Irvine in August 2023. From Boingo, to Batman, to Big Mess and Beyond returns to the Hollywood Bowl on November 2nd, and travels to Shoreline Amphitheater on November 3rd this fall. Elfman is currently scoring the film Dracula: A Love Tale for the director Luc Besson and is working on a follow-up solo album.
PROGRAM IV
C O LO R A D O S Y M P H O N Y.O R G
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 with Paul Huang NOV 7-9 FRI-SAT 7:30 | SUN 1:00 COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG
BIOGRAPHIES
CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is the Music Director of Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, newly appointed Music Director of the Philly Pops, former Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra and is the Resident Conductor of the Colorado Symphony. He joined the Colorado Symphony in the 2015/2016 Season as Associate Conductor – a position he held for four years. For three years prior, Dragon held the inaugural position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch. Dragon has a versatile portfolio ranging from live-to-picture performances including Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, a wide variety of collaborations with artists such as the Wu-Tang Clan, Cynthia Erivo and Joshua Bell, to standard and contemporary orchestral repertoire such as Danny Elfman’s Percussion Concerto; all areas of which he has become highly sought after. Christopher has become known for his charisma, high energy and affinity for a good costume, consistently delivering unforgettable performances that has made him an audience favourite. Recent highlights include his sold-out symphony tour with Gregory Alan Isakov, which included debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Nashville Symphony, a new orchestral collaboration with Nathaniel Rateliff and his successful German debut with the WDR Funkhausorchester. Christopher is highly sought after as a guest conductor and has worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Utah Symphony, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In Australia, he has guest conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with John Pyke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was released on album by ABC Music and won an ARIA the following year. He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, with both resulting in immediate re-invitations. At the beginning of 2016 Dragon conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Art Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program in Australia under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula. PROGRAM VI
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CREDITS
Film Concert Production Credits President, Disney Music Group Ken Bunt SVP/GM, Disney Concerts Chip McLean VP, Disney Concerts Gina Lorscheider Business Affairs, Disney Concerts Darryl Franklin Leigh Zeichick Neiloofar Zeichick Elena Contreras Addison Granillo Narine Minasian Christy Swintek Svetlana Tzaneva Operations, Disney Concerts Brannon Fells Royd Haston Marketing, Disney Concerts Lisa Linares Technical Supervision Epilogue Media Music Preparation Booker T. White Productions For Bookings Inquiries: Emily.Yoon@TeamWass.com
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PROGRAM VII
A Holiday Evening with Ingrid Michaelson NOV 30 SUN 7:00 COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG