The Dearly Beloved Orchestra

Now recruiting musicians

The music of Kingdom Hearts, performed live.

A UK-based tribute project bringing large-scale orchestral and world-fusion arrangements of Yoko Shimomura’s Kingdom Hearts soundtrack to the concert stage. The score is written — and we are now recruiting the fifteen musicians who will play it.

Apply to join Find out more

Who we are

About the orchestra

Named after the theme that opens every game in the series, The Dearly Beloved Orchestra is a UK-based tribute project with one purpose: to perform the music of Kingdom Hearts the way it deserves to be heard — in large-scale, professional orchestral and world-fusion arrangements, played by real musicians in front of an audience who know every note.

The score asks a lot of an orchestra. In a single programme we move from the solo piano of Dearly Beloved to the swing of Traverse Town, the pipe-organ dread of Hollow Bastion, the Halloween Town waltzes, the Land of Dragons and full orchestral settings of Simple and Clean and Passion. That is why our chairs are built for players who can move between classical, jazz, synth and world instruments.

The show is written as a full concert in two acts, and the project is now moving from the page to the rehearsal room — so the founding fifteen will shape how it sounds and how it feels to be part of. Whether you are a conservatoire graduate, a working session player, or someone who grew up with this music and never stopped practising it, there may well be a chair for you.

  • UKBased — in-person rehearsals and performances
  • 15Chairs in the roster
  • IIActs — a full-length concert programme
  • 30+Pieces from across the series

Listen

Hear the arrangements

Preview suites from the score — mock-ups rendered from the arrangements the orchestra will play.

Act I — This Is Halloween
Act II — Dearly Beloved

Rendered previews, not the orchestra. The real thing is what we are recruiting you for.

Repertoire

What we play

Our programme is drawn from across the series — the piano themes, the world cues, the battle music and the songs. A selection of what we are preparing:

  • Dearly Beloved
  • Dive into the Heart
  • Destiny Islands
  • Traverse Town
  • Welcome to Wonderland
  • A Day in Agrabah
  • This Is Halloween
  • Hollow Bastion
  • Scherzo di Notte
  • Simple and Clean
  • Sora
  • Organization XIII
  • Lazy Afternoons
  • Sinister Sundown
  • Waltz of the Damned
  • Home of the Dragon
  • He’s a Pirate
  • Roxas
  • Missing You
  • Passion

…and more than thirty pieces in all.

Open positions

Open positions & requirements

We are recruiting across the whole orchestra. Several chairs are multi-instrumental — if you double, say so; it is exactly what we are looking for.

  1. 1

    Keyboards

    • Pianist 1 / Keyboard Advanced classical and jazz technique. Primary acoustic piano, doubling synth.
    • Keyboard 2 Synth specialist: custom sound patches, world-instrument samples and orchestral layering.
  2. 2

    Strings

    • Violin 1 & Violin 2
    • Viola
    • Cello
    • Double bass Upright / acoustic.
  3. 3

    Woodwinds

    Multi-instrumentalists required

    • Woodwind 1 Flute, piccolo, oboe.
    • Woodwind 2 Clarinet, flute, oboe, piccolo.
    • Woodwind 3 Bassoon, oboe.
  4. 4

    Brass

    • Brass 1 Trumpet, saxophone. Piccolo trumpet required for select cues.
    • Brass 2 Trombone, French horn, trumpet.
    • Brass 3 Tuba, trombone.
  5. 5

    Percussion

    Two players, large setup

    • Percussion 1 & 2 Comfortable navigating multi-instrument rigs: pitched mallet instruments, drum kit, timpani and extensive auxiliary world percussion.
  6. 6

    Specialty instruments

    Highly desirable — feature roles

    • Xiao flute
    • Erhu
    • Koto

Don’t see your instrument? Apply anyway — tell us what you play and we will be in touch.

Joining us

What to expect

  1. 01

    The show

    A full concert in two acts, written for a fifteen-chair ensemble. Parts are prepared in MuseScore so everyone rehearses from clean, consistent material.

  2. 02

    Rehearsals

    Regular rehearsals once the roster is in place, with sectionals as we approach performance. Day, venue and schedule will be agreed with the founding members. Attendance is in person.

  3. 03

    Standard

    This is a professional-calibre project. We ask for a confident reading standard, secure technique across the instruments listed for your chair, and the ability to move between orchestral, jazz, synth and world idioms.

  4. 04

    Commitment

    Reliability matters more than anything. We would rather have a committed player who is always there than a brilliant one who rarely is.

Application

Apply to join

Tell us a little about yourself and what you play. We read every application personally and will reply to everyone.

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