The Houston Symphony will screen the 2006 romantic comedy “The Holiday” on a cinema-size screen while its musicians perform Hans Zimmer’s score live, with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black appearing on screen for one night only on November 20. The 7:30 p.m. performance places the beloved holiday romance in a live orchestral concert format.
According to CW39 Houston, the film follows two women living 6,000 miles apart who swap homes for Christmas and unexpectedly find love, with the orchestra performing Zimmer’s score live throughout. Guest conductor Jason Seber will lead the performance; he previously served as associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony from 2016 to 2022 and has led more than 30 live-to-film orchestral features nationwide, according to his own biography posted at JasonSeber.com.
The screening happens inside Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, which first opened in October 1966 as a gift to the City of Houston. The venue has a flexible capacity ranging from 2,300 to 2,912 seats.
Tickets and Sponsorship Details
Pre-sale tickets opened to Houston Symphony subscribers and donors on September 17, with general public sales beginning on November 18. Sippi and Ajay Khurana are serving as presenting sponsors for “The Holiday in Concert,” which is being hosted under the orchestra’s Nexus Health Systems Holiday Series.
During live-to-picture presentations like this one, a film is projected on a cinema-sized screen while musicians perform the score live.
A Score Built Around Guest Soloists
Hans Zimmer composed the score for “The Holiday,” which was directed by Nancy Meyers.
Houston Symphony's Deep Local Roots
The Houston Symphony presented its inaugural concert at the Majestic Theatre on June 21, 1913, according to Houstonia Magazine. More than a century later, the Grammy Award-winning orchestra operates with an annual budget exceeding $40 million and stands among Texas’s largest performing arts organizations, presenting more than 130 mainstage concerts and hundreds of community events each year, per the Houston Symphony.
“The Holiday in Concert” is one piece of a broader fall and winter pop and film series at Jones Hall, which also includes a live-to-picture presentation of Disney’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” on October 31 and Handel’s “Messiah.”
For Houston moviegoers and symphony patrons alike, “The Holiday in Concert” offers a chance to hear Zimmer’s score performed live inside a hall built specifically for that kind of acoustic experience.
