PSO brings Star Wars to PPG Paints Arena

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is taking its next movie night out of the concert hall and into an arena. On Tuesday, May 25, 2027, at 7:00 pm, the PSO brings 'Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert' to PPG Paints Arena as part of the UPMC Movies with the PSO series, which got its new title sponsor this October. The whole thing is built around the 50th anniversary of the Star Wars saga, and it's the kind of night that works for kids and adults alike.

The setup is the real draw here. Instead of a movie screen at the front of a stage, the arena's four-sided videoboard does the heavy lifting: four 50-foot-by-32-foot screens, more than 32 million pixels, two 360-degree LED rings, and dynamic lighting. The orchestra sits beneath the main videoboard, facing the Michelob ULTRA Club in Section 112, and the sound is professionally amplified and broadcast through the house PA system so the music reaches every seat. With the film running on the screens and the score played live, the whole room turns into part of the show.

Leading the orchestra is PSO Associate Conductor Jacob Joyce, who also serves as the Music Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra. He's 31, a former Resident Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and has stood before the London Symphony Orchestra, the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, and the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt. He studied orchestral conducting with Hugh Wolff at the New England Conservatory and worked through the Tanglewood Music Center and the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen.

The music itself is the work of John Williams, who scored all nine main Star Wars films from 1977 to 2019 and won an Academy Award for the original 1977 score. He's been nominated for nearly every Star Wars film since, and in September 2022, he and former Disney CEO Bob Iger were named honorary knights of the Order of the British Empire for their services to film music. The production is licensed by Disney Concerts in association with 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm Ltd., and Warner/Chappell Music.

Tickets start at $45 and went on sale to the public on Thursday, October 15, through Ticketmaster and pittsburghsymphony.org. There's a bit of history tied to the date, too: this performance replaces a concert that was originally scheduled for the same night at Heinz Hall. Ticket holders for that Heinz Hall show get priority for the PPG Paints Arena concert and can sort out their new tickets through the Heinz Hall office at 412-392-4900.

For anyone who hasn't been to a show at PPG Paints Arena, it's a big room: 1001 Fifth Avenue, 19,758 seats, and more than 150 events a year, including home games for the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. You can choose between floor seats, lower-level sections, upper-level seats, premium seats, club zones, suites, and accessible seating, with official parking, garages, and shared vehicle areas nearby. It's a long way from the PSO's usual home at Heinz Hall in the Cultural District, but for a 50th-anniversary Star Wars night, the scale is the whole point.