About four-ish months ago, I splurged on floor seats to see Hans Zimmer perform his glorious film scores with an orchestra. A few days after snagging those tickets, I learned that Zimmer himself would not be in attendance. He had curated the setlist and approved the talent, but that crucial detail was buried in fine print.

While I’d love to see Zimmer conduct IRL, the promise of hearing his film scores performed live by world-class musicians was exciting enough.

So last Saturday, I found myself in the car, burning through my good Costco gas for a 40-mile trek to the Honda Center in Anaheim.

To its credit, the Honda Center has a pretty manageable layout, with concessions, alcohol, food, restrooms and merch on the main floor, plus plenty of staff around to help you find your seat. That’s a huge plus for me, because I’m the Michael Jordan of getting lost, by car and on foot.

A little after 8 p.m., the house lights dimmed, and members of the international orchestra—featuring musicians from Kenya, Ukraine, Beirut, France, the US and beyond, including players from the world-class Odessa Orchestra & Friends and the Nairobi Chamber Chorus—filed onto the stage to thunderous applause. (What they don’t tell you about live orchestra events is that you’ll clap more than you ever have in your life. I’m talking Cannes Film Festival levels of applause, so pace yourself or you’ll end up with a callus.)

After the musicians settled in, a pre-recorded video of Hans Zimmer played. The bubbly German maestro then introduced our conductor for the evening, his longtime friend Matt Dunkley, who has worked on more than 200 projects, including Barbie, Succession, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Top Gun: Maverick.

From there, the packed house was treated to one banger after another as different soloists took center stage to deliver one masterful piece after another from Zimmer’s vast repertoire. I’m talking themes from The Dark Knight, The Rock, and No Time to Die.

Just look at this setlist on the back of the merch, and that’s not even counting the Pirates of the Caribbean theme from the encore. Bliss!

Lead violinist Berfin Aksu from Ankara, Turkey, was absolutely electric, performing with big energy and a magnetic “musician face” that really heightened the drama of the more emotional themes.

After a quick 20-minute intermission, the second half opened with more crowd-pleasers, including themes from Interstellar, Prince of Egypt and Kung Fu Panda.

One of my favorite surprises came when a video of Guy Ritchie (one of my fave directors) popped up, and we got to hear a sweet anecdote about Hans traveling to Slovakia to recruit musicians for the Sherlock Holmes score.

The conversation led straight into the orchestra performing a swinging rendition of the main suite, with the fiddle front and center to capture that ye olde British, mischievous-adventurer energy perfectly.

For his Dune solo, multi-instrumentalist Saulius Petreikis showcased the haunting sound of the Armenian duduk, a double-reed woodwind instrument that dates back 3,000 years. He’s also the creator of a virtual sound library featuring rare instruments in case you ever need a double shepherd flute for your next period piece. (Methinks Robert Eggers would love this library.)

Toward the end of the show, Hans shared the story of how he came to be involved with The Lion King. Early in his career, he hadn’t yet composed anything “kid-friendly,” so his daughter had never seen his work. When The Lion King came along, she was six, the same age Hans was when his father passed. And he took on the project as a way to create something meaningful for her.

It went on to become one of his most iconic scores.

If there were ever proof that music can heal, the performance that followed would be undeniable evidence. When soloist Nokukhanya Dlamini launched into Lebo M’s iconic Zulu chant, “Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba,” it hit me square in the chest.

Watching passionate musicians come together to create something transcendent and remembering what The Lion King meant to me as a kid, whew, it was almost too much. My goodness, I was wholly unprepared.

After this came the encore, where we were treated to virtual Hans playing the main Interstellar theme on piano alongside the Bay Area’s own Briana Washington on the keys.

On the way out, I bought a shirt featuring the Interstellar scales, then immediately got lost looking for the lot I’d parked in because if there’s a will, there’s a way. But there was really no rush. Once I found my car, I wound up stuck in a traffic jam in the garage for an hour thanks to the one-way-in, one-way-out Thunderdome situation.

And as I sat in that creepy parking garage, surrounded by idling cars and exhaust fumes, I recapped the night with a big, goofy smile on my face. Dozens of musicians had dedicated their lives to becoming some of the best in the world, and for one evening, they shared that gift with us. That’s something technology will never replace. We should all feel lucky for every chance we get to bask in the greatness of our fellow humans.