Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Classical Album.
Philharmonia Fantastique is Mason’s most ambitious project to date designed to connect music, musicians, and audiences, and to explore the fundamental connections between music, sound, performance, creativity, and technology. Performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor, Edwin Outwater, the album was engineered by Shawn Murphy, Charlie Post & Gary Rydstrom, and mastered by Michael Romanowski.
“Our engineers achieved an extraordinary result amidst the most challenging recording environment. In the depths of Covid, we had to record the instrumental families separately – which actually gave us amazing control in the studio later. And the process even illustrated the piece’s theme of “unity from diversity” – ie, the orchestra as a model of different materials and technologies fusing into one beautiful super-instrument.” – Mason Bates
The soundtrack is available to listen on Sony Classical and the film is now available to watch on Apple TV and Apple Music.
Philharmonia Fantastique can be seen live in concert in 2023 on both sides of the Atlantic, including:
January 21 2023 – Nashville Symphony – Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville TN, USA
January 29 2023 – Kansas City Symphony – Kauffman Center, Kansas City, MO, USA
March 4 2023 – New West Symphony – Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA
March 5 2023 – New West Symphony – Rancho Campana Performing Arts Center, Camarillo, CA, USA
March 8, 13 & 14 2023 – National Symphony Orchestra –The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. USA
April 2 2023 – The Cleveland Orchestra – Severance Music Center, Cleveland, OH, USA
April 30 2023 – Vancouver Symphony Orchestra – The Orpheum, Vancouver, BC, Canada
April 11 2023 – Utah Symphony – Noorda Center for the Performing Arts, Orem, UT, USA