The Cincinnati Pops brings the Oscar-winning musical to Music Hall with its score performed live Sept. 5 and 6

For one weekend in September, moviegoers will hear La La Land a little differently. 

The Cincinnati Pops will present La La Land in Concert Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 6 at 2 p.m. at Music Hall. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Damien Chazelle’s 2016 film, the concert pairs the full movie with the Pops, a jazz band and its piano solos performed live. 

Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, La La Land follows a jazz pianist and aspiring actress chasing careers and a relationship in Los Angeles. Damon Gupton, the Cincinnati Pops’ principal guest conductor, will lead the live performance. Gupton also appears in the film. 

Matching an orchestra to a movie already moving on screen requires precision. Gupton says the musicians use a “click track” to keep the soundtrack’s pulse while he follows the film on a monitor in front of him. 

“It is very, very challenging as films like La La Land have singing that is prerecorded, so things have to match tightly,” Gupton says. 

The score moves between intimate jazz and the sweeping sound of classic Hollywood musicals. Gupton says audiences will hear both a jazz-combo sound and larger jazz influences when the full orchestra takes over. 

The live setting can also bring out pieces of the score that viewers may not notice when watching the movie at home or in a theater. 

“You may get to experience something you’ve never heard, or maybe even felt,” Gupton says. “There may be an instrument you’ve never heard or a sound that you didn’t even know existed during a film you’ve seen 20 times.” 

One moment Gupton especially looks forward to is the opening number, “Another Day of Sun,” set in the middle of a Los Angeles traffic jam. 

“I think ‘Another Day of Sun’ is fun and catchy, and I enjoy the choreography, including the dancing on the cars,” he says. 

La La Land in Concert is part of the Cincinnati Pops’ 2026-27 season at Music Hall, 1241 Elm St, Over-the-Rhine. Tickets are available through the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.