[playing "A Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins]
[Richards] People will come up to me and say,
"Don't you ever get tired of playing all that Disney music?"
And the answer is, "Never."
I'm ecstatic that I get to exercise every part of my musical passion.
And I get to do that with love and give it away every time I play a show.
[music continues]
[music ends]
My passion for music was innate.
My mother was a singer. My father was a doctor who loved playing the piano,
so I grew up in a house full of music.
And being a Midwest boy, of course, I went to church every Sunday,
and that's where I heard the first big pipe organ.
It was love at first sight.
So, I started playing the organ,
and it was like somebody turned the key.
I knew what my destiny was, and I knew why I was born.
It was to play the mighty Wurlitzer.
The El Capitan is a showcase
for a style of entertainment
that isn't heard anywhere else in the world.
[playing "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast]
Primarily, the organ is used as a pre-show
as the guests come into the theater.
Part of the fun of watching a theater organist is not just the sound,
it's watching a human being facilitate this gigantic instrument.
Disney reinvents itself,
and that's one of the things that I love about this company.
There's always a new way to take something old
and spin it so it becomes something new.
And our audiences, from children to grandparents,
have fallen in love with this Wurlitzer,
and it's a key part of our shows
just as much as the movies and all the special events that we do.
I was the quintessential Disney kid.
My obsession with all things Disney
really did start with the Sunday evening program with Walt,
and it was the centerpiece of the week for me.
When Tinker Bell flew across the screen and the fireworks exploded,
somewhere in the back of my head there always lurked this notion
that I would end up making music with The Walt Disney Company.
Made it.
Welcome to the treasure trove
that is the foundation chamber in the Wurlitzer pipe organ.
And that sound you hear is
what a living, breathing pipe organ sounds like.
[pipes humming]
The genesis of the theater organ
was the brainchild of an eccentric Englishman named Robert Hope-Jones.
So, follow me up the stairs.
He had a brilliant idea about being able to separate the console
from the pipes and all of the mechanisms of the organ.
I select a chime stop key,
I play the note and...
[dings]
...the chimes play from hundreds of feet away.
[laughs] About twice as hard as getting in.
We have things from the orchestra like the strings.
[strings play]
Brass trumpets.
[trumpets play]
The pedalboard is a giant keyboard you can play with your feet.
And you can actually control the volume,
which is what imparts the feeling into your playing.
[music playing]
The signature sound of the theater organ
was this very enchanting and enveloping ballad sound.
And it sounds like this.
[playing "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio]
It's left and right brain.
It involves your whole body, and while we're playing,
we have to be thinking several measures ahead in order to facilitate stop changes,
phrasing and everything else.
[music continues]
[music ends]
There was a fad that came along
where people would take an instrument like this,
and they would build a gigantic pizza parlor around it.
So, I spent 18 years playing the theater organ
in pizza parlors all over the United States,
and yet I asked myself the question,
"Do I wanna wake up and be 50 and still playing in a pizza parlor?"
And the answer was, "No."
The Disney Company was looking for a Wurlitzer pipe organ
for the El Capitan Theatre.
So I flew over to Los Angeles, and I said,
"I love Disney, I love these old pipe organs,
and I will do anything to support you.
You tell me what I can do to help."
Three or four years later, I got a phone call.
"The organ's almost finished. Are you ready to come to work for us?"
It was a one-of-a-kind theater,
and I got to bring my passion,
not only for the theater organ, but for the Disney music library too.
That moment, and the 20 years I've spent at this console,
is beyond my wildest imagination for my career.
The passion and the music continue to drive me.
I get to be my own costume designer,
and I love theming my wardrobe to the movies that we're playing.
Beauty and the Beast, kind of a "Beast blue".
Leopard spots, Jungle Book.
Genie blue sequins, Aladdin.
Hawaiian floral, gotta be Moana.
Chosen especially for my 20th anniversary concert.
[music playing]
[music ends]
When I think about sitting down to perform for an audience--
Let me compose for a minute.
The first thing I think about is,
I want to take each guest to a place that they've never been before.
I want to touch their heart.
I want to make them smile,
and I want to create an experience for them
that may be unlike anything they will ever hear again in their life.
[applause]
The most magical thing about the Wurlitzer and the Disney songbook
is it has that ability to reach inside somebody and turn a switch,
and that's my job.
And I love it.