Grand Finale for Joe Hisaishi's Studio Ghibli Film Concert

In July 2025, the Tokyo Dome will host the grand finale of Joe Hisaishi’s world tour, titled Studio Ghibli Film Concert Tour Final. This celebratory concert will feature the renowned Japanese composer conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a live performance of his iconic scores for Studio Ghibli films. The program includes music from ten films by Hayao Miyazaki, including Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Performing alongside Hisaishi will be the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, soprano Ella Taylor, vocalist Mai, and mandolinist Marie Burou. The choice of the Tokyo Dome for the final act of the tour gives the event a monumental dimension: symphonic music enters the realm of large-scale entertainment, transforming melodies originally created for cinema into a collective, immersive experience. For Joe Hisaishi - who has composed over 100 soundtracks and collaborated with Miyazaki since the 1980s - this concert marks a high point in a career that has shaped the imagination of entire generations. The fusion of symphonic orchestra, international choirs, and traditional instruments creates a sonic bridge between East and West, between popular culture and classical music. Hisaishi’s themes, known for their melodic simplicity and emotional depth, gain renewed power in a live setting, capable of evoking, without images, the animated worlds that have become part of global cultural heritage. The concert is not only a tribute to animated cinema, but also a celebration of music as an autonomous form of storytelling. Freed from the screen, scores from Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke reveal their musical architecture, affirming Hisaishi’s place not just as a film composer, but as a contemporary classical author who speaks directly to the hearts of international audiences.