MSU’s Wharton Center for Performing Arts hosted the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and their performance of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" in concert.
The orchestra performed the music while the movie is played in the background on a screen, as part of the "Harry Potter Film Concert Series," a way for the audience to relive every aspect the movie — and music — offers.
One member of the orchestra is music performance senior Philip Roragen, who played the synthesizer, a slightly different instrument from the keyboard he usually plays. This weekend marked Roragen’s first time performing with the orchestra, because Lansing Symphony Orchestra rarely uses synthesizers.
Roragen said the orchestra started practicing a few weeks ago. He met with an MSU College of Music faculty member who actually plays the synthesizer and the piano in the concert to help him practice for the performance.
As his middle school years were ending and the last Harry Potter books were being published, Roragen said, that's when he was becoming "a huge fan" of the series. Because of this, he looked forward to playing the music for the movie.
"I love the music and I think (it's) a really unique experience to play the music with the movie," Roragen said.
What made this performance extra special to Roragen is his history with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and how he grew up idolizing them.
"Me and my dad have gone to the symphony every year since I was in third grade," he said.
LSO performed on Nov. 17 and 18 in Wharton Center's Great Cobb Hall.
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