Candlelight: The Best of Joe Hisaishi

Candlelight: The Best of Joe Hisaishi comes to the Omni William Penn Hotel on Sunday, November 8, 2026. It's a tribute to the music of Joe Hisaishi, the composer whose scores have given voice to some of cinema's most beloved stories, performed live by a string quartet under the glow of candlelight.

If you've spent any time with Studio Ghibli films, you know the melodies. The program pulls from Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, along with Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya. You'll hear specific pieces like "Kaze no Tani" from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, "Kimi wo Nosete" from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and "Chihiro's Waltz" and "A Journey (A Dream of Flight)" from The Wind Rises. It's a tribute experience, not a performance by Hisaishi himself, and it's not associated with or sponsored by the artist or his official representatives.

The venue is the Historic Hotel Ballroom at the Omni William Penn Hotel, downtown at 530 William Penn Place. It's a 1,200-capacity room that opened in 1916 as a Renaissance Revival masterpiece by Benno Janssen and Franklin Abbott, with Beaux-Arts and Art Deco elements. The Listeso String Quartet will be the ones playing.

The show starts at 8:45 PM and runs for 60 minutes, with doors opening 45 minutes before the start. Tickets start at $33.50.