1 00:00:17,496 --> 00:00:22,126 [playing "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins] 2 00:00:25,046 --> 00:00:26,464 [Richards] People will come up to me and say, 3 00:00:26,547 --> 00:00:29,675 "Don't you ever get tired of playing all that Disney music?" 4 00:00:31,594 --> 00:00:33,929 And the answer is, "Never." 5 00:00:34,722 --> 00:00:39,518 I'm ecstatic that I get to exercise every part of my musical passion. 6 00:00:39,602 --> 00:00:43,439 And I get to do that with love and give it away every time I play a show. 7 00:00:43,522 --> 00:00:45,524 [music continues] 8 00:00:47,193 --> 00:00:48,194 [music ends] 9 00:01:00,748 --> 00:01:02,833 My passion for music was innate. 10 00:01:02,917 --> 00:01:07,129 My mother was a singer. My father was a doctor who loved playing the piano, 11 00:01:07,213 --> 00:01:09,215 so I grew up in a house full of music. 12 00:01:09,298 --> 00:01:12,676 And being a Midwest boy, of course, I went to church every Sunday, 13 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:14,929 and that's where I heard the first big pipe organ. 14 00:01:15,012 --> 00:01:16,222 It was love at first sight. 15 00:01:16,305 --> 00:01:18,015 So, I started playing the organ, 16 00:01:18,099 --> 00:01:20,851 and it was like somebody turned the key. 17 00:01:20,935 --> 00:01:23,938 I knew what my destiny was, and I knew why I was born. 18 00:01:24,355 --> 00:01:26,357 It was to play the mighty Wurlitzer. 19 00:01:28,401 --> 00:01:31,112 The El Capitan is a showcase 20 00:01:31,195 --> 00:01:34,073 for a style of entertainment 21 00:01:34,156 --> 00:01:36,742 that isn't heard anywhere else in the world. 22 00:01:36,826 --> 00:01:38,411 [playing "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast] 23 00:01:38,494 --> 00:01:43,666 Primarily, the organ is used as a pre-show 24 00:01:43,749 --> 00:01:45,710 as the guests come into the theater. 25 00:01:47,044 --> 00:01:51,006 Part of the fun of watching a theater organist is not just the sound, 26 00:01:51,090 --> 00:01:55,344 it's watching a human being facilitate this gigantic instrument. 27 00:02:02,017 --> 00:02:04,228 Disney reinvents itself, 28 00:02:04,311 --> 00:02:07,857 and that's one of the things that I love about this company. 29 00:02:08,399 --> 00:02:11,110 There's always a new way to take something old 30 00:02:11,193 --> 00:02:14,113 and spin it so it becomes something new. 31 00:02:14,196 --> 00:02:17,575 And our audiences, from children to grandparents, 32 00:02:17,658 --> 00:02:19,368 have fallen in love with this Wurlitzer, 33 00:02:19,452 --> 00:02:21,704 and it's a key part of our shows 34 00:02:21,787 --> 00:02:25,916 just as much as the movies and all the special events that we do. 35 00:02:27,793 --> 00:02:31,130 I was the quintessential Disney kid. 36 00:02:31,505 --> 00:02:34,884 My obsession with all things Disney 37 00:02:34,967 --> 00:02:38,220 really did start with the Sunday evening program with Walt, 38 00:02:38,304 --> 00:02:41,474 and it was the centerpiece of the week for me. 39 00:02:41,557 --> 00:02:44,894 When Tinker Bell flew across the screen and the fireworks exploded, 40 00:02:44,977 --> 00:02:49,231 somewhere in the back of my head there always lurked this notion 41 00:02:49,315 --> 00:02:52,193 that I would end up making music with The Walt Disney Company. 42 00:02:58,949 --> 00:02:59,784 Made it. 43 00:02:59,867 --> 00:03:02,953 Welcome to the treasure trove 44 00:03:03,037 --> 00:03:06,624 that is the foundation chamber in the Wurlitzer pipe organ. 45 00:03:08,084 --> 00:03:10,544 And that sound you hear is 46 00:03:10,628 --> 00:03:14,215 what a living, breathing pipe organ sounds like. 47 00:03:14,298 --> 00:03:16,300 [pipes humming] 48 00:03:17,718 --> 00:03:20,679 The genesis of the theater organ 49 00:03:20,763 --> 00:03:24,809 was the brainchild of an eccentric Englishman named Robert Hope-Jones. 50 00:03:24,892 --> 00:03:27,395 So, follow me up the stairs. 51 00:03:27,478 --> 00:03:32,525 He had a brilliant idea about being able to separate the console 52 00:03:32,608 --> 00:03:35,528 from the pipes and all of the mechanisms of the organ. 53 00:03:35,611 --> 00:03:37,738 I select a chime stop key, 54 00:03:37,822 --> 00:03:39,240 I play the note and... 55 00:03:39,323 --> 00:03:40,866 [dings] 56 00:03:40,950 --> 00:03:44,203 ...the chimes play from hundreds of feet away. 57 00:03:47,164 --> 00:03:49,917 [laughs] About twice as hard as getting in. 58 00:03:51,585 --> 00:03:54,797 We have things from the orchestra like the strings. 59 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:56,841 [strings play] 60 00:03:57,216 --> 00:03:58,634 Brass trumpets. 61 00:03:58,718 --> 00:04:01,929 [trumpets play] 62 00:04:03,222 --> 00:04:07,017 The pedalboard is a giant keyboard you can play with your feet. 63 00:04:07,101 --> 00:04:08,769 And you can actually control the volume, 64 00:04:08,853 --> 00:04:12,356 which is what imparts the feeling into your playing. 65 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:14,900 [music playing] 66 00:04:14,984 --> 00:04:17,278 The signature sound of the theater organ 67 00:04:17,361 --> 00:04:22,533 was this very enchanting and enveloping ballad sound. 68 00:04:22,616 --> 00:04:24,076 And it sounds like this. 69 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:28,998 [playing "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio] 70 00:04:29,081 --> 00:04:30,666 It's left and right brain. 71 00:04:30,750 --> 00:04:33,919 It involves your whole body, and while we're playing, 72 00:04:34,003 --> 00:04:38,466 we have to be thinking several measures ahead in order to facilitate stop changes, 73 00:04:38,549 --> 00:04:40,509 phrasing and everything else. 74 00:04:40,593 --> 00:04:43,012 [music continues] 75 00:04:53,939 --> 00:04:55,232 [music ends] 76 00:04:55,316 --> 00:04:57,985 There was a fad that came along 77 00:04:58,069 --> 00:05:00,237 where people would take an instrument like this, 78 00:05:00,321 --> 00:05:03,574 and they would build a gigantic pizza parlor around it. 79 00:05:03,657 --> 00:05:07,078 So, I spent 18 years playing the theater organ 80 00:05:07,161 --> 00:05:09,538 in pizza parlors all over the United States, 81 00:05:09,622 --> 00:05:13,501 and yet I asked myself the question, 82 00:05:13,584 --> 00:05:17,797 "Do I wanna wake up and be 50 and still playing in a pizza parlor?" 83 00:05:18,422 --> 00:05:19,882 And the answer was, "No." 84 00:05:20,591 --> 00:05:23,094 The Disney Company was looking for a Wurlitzer pipe organ 85 00:05:23,177 --> 00:05:24,887 for the El Capitan Theatre. 86 00:05:24,970 --> 00:05:27,223 So I flew over to Los Angeles, and I said, 87 00:05:27,306 --> 00:05:30,601 "I love Disney, I love these old pipe organs, 88 00:05:30,684 --> 00:05:33,396 and I will do anything to support you. 89 00:05:33,479 --> 00:05:35,398 You tell me what I can do to help." 90 00:05:35,731 --> 00:05:38,609 Three or four years later, I got a phone call. 91 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:42,321 "The organ's almost finished. Are you ready to come to work for us?" 92 00:05:44,990 --> 00:05:47,243 It was a one-of-a-kind theater, 93 00:05:47,326 --> 00:05:48,911 and I got to bring my passion, 94 00:05:48,994 --> 00:05:52,748 not only for the theater organ, but for the Disney music library too. 95 00:05:53,124 --> 00:05:56,961 That moment, and the 20 years I've spent at this console, 96 00:05:57,044 --> 00:06:01,173 is beyond my wildest imagination for my career. 97 00:06:02,007 --> 00:06:04,927 The passion and the music continue to drive me. 98 00:06:10,099 --> 00:06:12,351 I get to be my own costume designer, 99 00:06:12,435 --> 00:06:16,522 and I love theming my wardrobe to the movies that we're playing. 100 00:06:16,605 --> 00:06:19,942 Beauty and the Beast, kind of a "Beast blue". 101 00:06:20,026 --> 00:06:22,111 Leopard spots, Jungle Book. 102 00:06:22,194 --> 00:06:24,238 Genie blue sequins, Aladdin. 103 00:06:24,321 --> 00:06:26,949 Hawaiian floral, gotta be Moana. 104 00:06:27,033 --> 00:06:30,619 Chosen especially for my 20th anniversary concert. 105 00:06:30,703 --> 00:06:32,705 [music playing] 106 00:06:38,169 --> 00:06:39,795 [music ends] 107 00:06:40,504 --> 00:06:43,591 When I think about sitting down to perform for an audience-- 108 00:06:47,845 --> 00:06:49,638 Let me compose for a minute. 109 00:06:52,933 --> 00:06:55,061 The first thing I think about is, 110 00:06:55,144 --> 00:07:00,232 I want to take each guest to a place that they've never been before. 111 00:07:03,319 --> 00:07:04,862 I want to touch their heart. 112 00:07:04,945 --> 00:07:06,238 I want to make them smile, 113 00:07:06,322 --> 00:07:09,367 and I want to create an experience for them 114 00:07:09,450 --> 00:07:13,245 that may be unlike anything they will ever hear again in their life. 115 00:07:18,417 --> 00:07:19,627 [applause] 116 00:07:20,044 --> 00:07:24,548 The most magical thing about the Wurlitzer and the Disney songbook 117 00:07:24,632 --> 00:07:29,387 is it has that ability to reach inside somebody and turn a switch, 118 00:07:29,470 --> 00:07:30,888 and that's my job. 119 00:07:30,971 --> 00:07:31,972 And I love it.