Disney’s MOANA
Live-To-Film Concert
Sunday, November 23, 2025, 1pm
Zellerbach Hall
This performance is proudly brought to life by performers and crew from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, including Samoan, Hawaiian, Tongan, Venezuelan, Colombian, and Mexican descent.
The performance is a presentation of the complete film Disney Moana with live music performed by Polynesian rhythm masters and vocalists. Out of respect for the musicians and your fellow audience members, please remain in the theater until the conclusion of the end credits.
This performance lasts approximately two hours, including a 20-minute intermission.
Cal Performances is committed to fostering a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for all one that honors our venues as places of respite, openness, and respect. Please see the Community Agreements section on our Policies page for more information.
About the Performance
Disney Moana Live-To-Film Concert
2025 Tour
Disney Concerts and AMP Worldwide present Disney’s Moana Live-To-Film Concert North American tour, featuring a full-length screening of the beloved movie accompanied by live performances of a unique on-stage musical ensemble of top Hollywood studio musicians, Polynesian rhythm masters, and vocalists, celebrating the music and songs from this award-winning Walt Disney Animation Studios’ classic.
About the Movie
Three thousand years ago, the greatest sailors in the world voyaged across the vast Pacific, discovering the many islands of Oceania. But then, for a millennium, their voyages stopped—and no one knows why. From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes Moana, a sweeping film about an adventurous teenager who sails out on a daring mission to save her people. During her journey, Moana (Auli‘i Cravalho) meets the mighty demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who guides her in her quest to become a master wayfinder. Together, they sail across the open ocean on an action-packed voyage, encountering enormous monsters and impossible odds. Along the way, Moana fulfills the ancient quest of her ancestors and discovers the one thing she has always sought: her own identity. (Note: Some flashing light sequences or patterns may affect photosensitive viewers.)
About Disney Concerts
Disney Concerts is the concert production and licensing division of Disney Music Group, the music arm of the Walt Disney Company. Disney Concerts produces concerts and tours, and licenses Disney music and visual content to symphony orchestras, choruses, choirs, and presenters on a worldwide basis. Disney Concerts’ licensed concert packages include a variety of formats, such as “live to film” concerts and themed instrumental and vocal compilation concerts that range from instrumental-only symphonic performances to multimedia productions featuring live vocalists and choir. Featuring concerts from the largest movie franchises in the world—from Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and 20th Century Studios—current titles include the Star Wars Film Concert Series, Toy Story, Aladdin, Disney Princess—The Concert, Coco, The Lion King, Up, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Muppet Christmas Carol.
We move now into one of the busier times of the year, when schedules begin to fill up with special events and holiday celebrations that bring together a host of family, friends, and colleagues. I’m so happy that you’ve chosen to spend part of this time here with us at Cal Performances. We enjoy seeing you in our halls at any time of the year, but particulary during the crowded days of November and December.
It’s particularly meaningful that we begin the month with a special tribute to the late tabla master and a longtime friend of Cal Performances, Zakir Hussain, as Chicago’s brilliant Third Coast Percussion and tabla virtuoso Salar Nader continue a collaboration initiated with the music legend before his passing late last year. Besides my profound amazement at his imagination, virtuosity, and sheer physical stamina, I was always struck by Zakir’s humor and humility. His warmth was immediate, and his enthusiasm for music and performance was infectious. I know I speak for many in the community when I say that Zakir will be dearly missed.
As spending time with family is particularly meaningful at this time of year, I’m happy to draw your attention to four programs with appeal for audience members of all ages: the Bay Area premiere of Sadler’s Wells’ extraordinary kung fu-infused Sutra, a thrilling collaboration between Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, sculptor Antony Gormley, composer Szymon Brzóska, and 20 Buddhist monks from the Shaolin Temple in China’s Henan Province; a crowd-pleasing all-Strauss program with the legendary Vienna Boys Choir; a special screening of Disney’s beloved animated classic Moana, accompanied by an ensemble of top Hollywood studio musicians, Polynesian rhythm masters, and guest vocalists; and a special Thanksgiving weekend trip down the rabbit hole with the mesmerizing—and ever-popular—dancer-illusionists of MOMIX in Alice, a wild and fantastical take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
The month also features offerings by the exceptional Twelfth Night early-music ensemble led by violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and harpsichordist David Belkovski; the virtuoso pianist and Cal Performances favorite Jeremy Denk in a highly anticipated recital of Bach’s complete partitas for solo keyboard; and a return visit by the supremely inventive visual storytellers of Manual Cinema with the Bay Area premiere of The 4th Witch, a Cal Performances-commissioned and meticulously crafted, gloriously handmade production inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Coming up in the new year, our 2025–26 season will continue with a wide range of talent including conductor Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; vocalists Joyce DiDonato and Renée Fleming; the Takács String Quartet; early-music superstars The English Concert, Jordi Savall, and The Tallis Scholars; jazz greats Cécile McLorin Salvant and Somi; and appearances by Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens and Broadway diva Kelli O’Hara.
And our acclaimed dance series continues, distinguished by genre-defining artists and major new productions including the Martha Graham Dance Company celebrating its centennial; The Joffrey Ballet in an otherworldly celebration of the traditional Scandinavian summer solstice festival; the long-awaited Cal Performances debut of A.I.M by Kyle Abraham; and, of course, return engagements with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
As you explore the calendar, I recommend you pay particular attention to our Illuminations theme of “Exile & Sanctuary,” focusing this season on how issues of displacement can inform bold new explorations of identity and community; and how artistic expression can offer safe harbor during times of unrest or upheaval.
The opportunity to engage with diverse artistic perspectives and share the transformative power of the live performing arts is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and I look forward to encountering these profound and entertaining experiences with you in the months ahead.
Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances