Danny Elfman Is Bringing Iconic Tim Burton Film Scores to Red Rocks

Jack Skellington is headlining Red Rocks this summer.

Danny Elfman — aka the music-maker and singing voice behind the beloved Tim Burton character — is teaming up with the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Symphony Chorus on Sunday, August 17.

Danny Elfman’s Music From the Films of Tim Burton, which premiered in 2014 and has since won two Emmys, will bring the iconic composer and longtime Burton collaborator’s legendary film scores to life. Featuring music from Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice and more, the Pumpkin King himself will join the local ensemble to perform certain selections from his hauntingly catchy catalog. He’ll be joined by world-renowned violinist Sandy Cameron, who’s previously worked alongside Elfman in similar concert settings.

If that’s not enough, the show will also include a one-of-a-kind visual journey through the weird world of Burton via original film sketches, drawings and storyboards projected on the big screen to accompany Elfman’s bizarro compositions.

Both Burton’s madcap visions and Elfman’s equally eccentric music have been buried deep in the psyches of certain generations, starting when Burton initially tapped Elfman to score his 1985 directorial debut, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The film was Elfman’s big box office breakout as well.

Since then, the duo has worked together on fifteen more movies, including Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Corpse Bride (2005), and most recently, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — the long-awaited 2024 sequel to the 1988 Burton original. So the Red Rocks appearance is a good excuse to say Elfman’s name thrice, or more.

“Red Rocks is one of the most unique and awe-inspiring concert venues in the world,” says Colorado Symphony’s Chief Artistic Officer Anthony Pierce. “To present the work of two singular creative forces — Danny Elfman and Tim Burton — on this stage, performed by our orchestra and chorus, with Elfman himself performing live, is nothing short of extraordinary. This will be a night unlike any other.”

The Colorado Symphony Association, the nonprofit behind the orchestra, performs more than 150 concerts annually at Denver’s Boettcher Concert Hall and throughout Colorado. Led by principal conductor Peter Oundjian, the Colorado Symphony is home to eighty full-time musicians, representing more than a dozen nations, and regularly welcomes the most celebrated artists from the world of symphonic music and beyond. The 2023-24 concert season marked the symphony’s centennial celebration.

Tickets for Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton go on sale this Friday, June 27, at 10 a.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit coloradosymphony.org, or call the box office at 303-623-7876.