Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Spirited Away
Music by Joe Hisaishi
Arranged by Jeremy Ng ′26
Conducted by Jeremy Ng ′26
__________________________________________________________________
Songs:
00:00 - One Summer's Day
03:07 - The Gods
04:50 - View of the Morning
05:30 - The Bottomless Pit
06:18 - No Face
06:41 - The Dragon Boy
08:31 - Reprise/Chihiro's Waltz
11:50 - The Return
Soloists:
Alan Xie, Piano
Eric Lee, Oboe
Charlie Wong, Violin
__________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE WORK
Spirited Away (2001), a Japanese animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, has never failed to instill wonder in the eyes of many who grew up with it. It became the first hand-drawn, non-English-language animated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and at one point was the highest grossing film in Japanese history. It tells the story of a young girl named Chihiro "Sen" Ogino, who moves to a new neighborhood and accidentally stumbles into a world of kami. After her parents are turned into pigs, Chihiro resolves to free her parents and return to the physical world by working in the bathhouse of the sorceress that turned them, Yubaba. Along the way, she meets Haku, the “dragon boy” who helps her to try to leave the spirit world, and No-Face, a silent creature whose mask has become iconic for Studio Ghibli fans across the world.
Joe Hisaishi’s work on this score equally brings this fantastical world’s magic to life. The original film score was written in collaboration with Miyazaki in a partnership that continues to this day. In 2018, he rearranged this score into the Spirited Away Suite, performed and debuted by the World Dream Orchestra in 2018.
This arrangement is an abridged, reordered, and reorchestrated version of the Suite, lightly inspired by another arrangement by the Hamamatsu Wind Symphony. It starts with “One Summer’s Day,” a wistful piece that is one of Hisaishi’s most famous works in his oeuvre. Join Chihiro as she becomes a part of Yubaba’s onsen as “Sen” and bathes spirits in “The Gods” and “View of the Morning.” Observe No-Face going on a gold-filled rampage in “The Bottomless Pit” and “No-Face.” Picture Haku’s graceful presence in “The Dragon Boy,” hushing Chihiro to return to the riverbed before sunset. Finally, listen as Chihiro rescues her parents and returns home in “Chihiro’s Waltz/Reprise,” one of the most famous waltzes in any Studio Ghibli piece, and “The Return.”
This is now the fourth consecutive year that we’ve brought Joe Hisaishi’s music into Woolsey Hall. The orchestra has consistently requested his music to be played, and I hope that this enthusiasm shines through in our rendition of the piece. Per Hisaishi’s own words in the original Suite: “I would be very grateful if orchestras around the world would take the opportunity to perform this work and that the music will be heard by as many people as possible."
~ Jeremy Ng ′26
#spiritedaway #onesummersday #noface
If you liked this concert, please drop a like + subscribe to our channel! Thank you ♥
__________________________________________________________________
Spirited Away
Music by Joe Hisaishi
Arranged by Jeremy Ng ′26
Conducted by Jeremy Ng ′26
__________________________________________________________________
Songs:
00:00 - One Summer's Day
03:07 - The Gods
04:50 - View of the Morning
05:30 - The Bottomless Pit
06:18 - No Face
06:41 - The Dragon Boy
08:31 - Reprise/Chihiro's Waltz
11:50 - The Return
Soloists:
Alan Xie, Piano
Eric Lee, Oboe
Charlie Wong, Violin
__________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE WORK
Spirited Away (2001), a Japanese animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, has never failed to instill wonder in the eyes of many who grew up with it. It became the first hand-drawn, non-English-language animated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and at one point was the highest grossing film in Japanese history. It tells the story of a young girl named Chihiro "Sen" Ogino, who moves to a new neighborhood and accidentally stumbles into a world of kami. After her parents are turned into pigs, Chihiro resolves to free her parents and return to the physical world by working in the bathhouse of the sorceress that turned them, Yubaba. Along the way, she meets Haku, the “dragon boy” who helps her to try to leave the spirit world, and No-Face, a silent creature whose mask has become iconic for Studio Ghibli fans across the world.
Joe Hisaishi’s work on this score equally brings this fantastical world’s magic to life. The original film score was written in collaboration with Miyazaki in a partnership that continues to this day. In 2018, he rearranged this score into the Spirited Away Suite, performed and debuted by the World Dream Orchestra in 2018.
This arrangement is an abridged, reordered, and reorchestrated version of the Suite, lightly inspired by another arrangement by the Hamamatsu Wind Symphony. It starts with “One Summer’s Day,” a wistful piece that is one of Hisaishi’s most famous works in his oeuvre. Join Chihiro as she becomes a part of Yubaba’s onsen as “Sen” and bathes spirits in “The Gods” and “View of the Morning.” Observe No-Face going on a gold-filled rampage in “The Bottomless Pit” and “No-Face.” Picture Haku’s graceful presence in “The Dragon Boy,” hushing Chihiro to return to the riverbed before sunset. Finally, listen as Chihiro rescues her parents and returns home in “Chihiro’s Waltz/Reprise,” one of the most famous waltzes in any Studio Ghibli piece, and “The Return.”
This is now the fourth consecutive year that we’ve brought Joe Hisaishi’s music into Woolsey Hall. The orchestra has consistently requested his music to be played, and I hope that this enthusiasm shines through in our rendition of the piece. Per Hisaishi’s own words in the original Suite: “I would be very grateful if orchestras around the world would take the opportunity to perform this work and that the music will be heard by as many people as possible."
~ Jeremy Ng ′26
#spiritedaway #onesummersday #noface
