Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is one of the most recognized pieces of music in Western civilization. It’s a song about fate, destiny and humanity. It’s bold and demands attention. We wanted to bring this music to life in a visual way that embraced these themes.

We drew inspiration from the phenomenon of synesthesia, our goal was to make users see the music and the story that drives it.

We saw each part of the music as a different, elemental spirit and that these spirits would fight and clash as the music did until they eventually all came together to form something new and beautiful.

Virtual reality allowed us to put the user inside this story, experiencing it all around them, on stage with the orchestra.

Dudamel told us that “Beethoven opens to you the door to go inside of your essence”, we wanted the experience to mirror this.

Once users put on a virtual reality headset, they are transported to the Concert Hall to experience the first few minutes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Dudamel, and accentuated by story-driven animation.

We broke Beethoven’s Fifth down into a story of animated spirits. The spirits dance around the space and come toward the user, perfectly in time with the music. As the music progresses, the spirits clash and struggle against each other until they come together in harmony creating a triumphant explosion of light.

For the installation, a custom van was built. The van was designed to match the interior of the Concert Hall and was able to travel around Los Angeles, bringing the virtual orchestra to people that normally wouldn’t get a chance to experience it.

Orchestra VR toured the city of Los Angeles from September 11th to October 24th with VAN Beethoven, a customized trailer designed to evoke the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The van traveled to more than 30 locations reaching thousands of people. The experience was widely praised in the press, garnering articles from Business Insider, Fast Company, Mashable, WIRED and more.

According to WIRED, Orchestra VR “is the larger promise of virtual reality realized”.