Feature_Hans Zimmer
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hen Hans Zimmer Live made its debut in Hamburg on 11 March, the wave of emotion across an audience who had been starved of live entertainment for the best part of two years was palpable. And those scenes were reflected among everyone involved in the spectacular production. “The tour was originally scheduled for Spring 2020, so when we had our first show in Hamburg, somebody from our social media team found out that we had announced that show 858 days ago,” reports Christoph Scholz from Semmel Concerts, which is co-producing the tour with RCI Global. “There were definitely people in that audience who had sat on their tickets for more than two years, so the sense of relief and enjoyment was immense.”
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With an office in Hamburg, Semmel Concerts promoted that opening night. “It was very emotional,” says Scholz. “There was enormous tension on stage and backstage. But the audience, the crew, and the artists were simply very happy to be together again, and the atmosphere was special.”
A World Apart
At press time, Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine was still raging, and thoughts of that senseless conflict are never far from the Hans Zimmer Live touring party, some of whom were forced to flee their country following the Russian invasion. “Our originally scheduled orchestra is the Odessa Opera Orchestra from Ukraine,” reveals Scholz. “Within the first 72 hours of the conflict, ten musicians and their families were able to make it out to safety. But that was only about half of the orchestra and the others were unable to leave Ukraine. As a result, we’ve renamed it
Odessa Opera Orchestra & Friends because we cast musicians from elsewhere in Europe. “On the opening night, Hans introduced the band first after his first song, and there were standing ovations. It was a very touching moment. But we’ve had lots of standing ovations, since. The support has been just phenomenal.” Getting the tour out of the starting blocks has been a monumental task, especially with so many false starts to contend with. “At Semmel, we were already hosting arena shows for domestic acts in Germany last year – between the end of August to mid-November we had 430,000 people attend our shows,” reports Scholz. “So, when we met Hans Zimmer for a production meeting in early September last year, we were confident we were all set to kick-start the tour and go full of Thousands steam ahead.” professionals read But in November, everything ground IQ every day.toMake a halt. “Suddenly, Germany restricted events sure you get the again; the Netherlands never really reopened;
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