‘Where It’s At’: alt-rock hitmaker Beck finds an affinity with orchestras

Alt-rock singer-songwriter Beck enjoyed his orchestral concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and other venues last year so much that he’s back for more this summer. 

In what’s being called his “Symphonic Reinvention Tour,” Beck returns to North American stages this summer, with nine concerts, all featuring local orchestras, across eight cities. The tour starts July 15 in New Haven, Connecticut, and stops July 23 at Ravinia, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Edwin Outwater, will accompany him. Along with the orchestras, Beck performs with his regular backing musicians on this tour.

“The band got a little bigger since last time,” Beck said jokingly during his 2024 two-night Carnegie Hall stand, with the 73-member Orchestra of St. Luke’s onstage. Among other songs, the concerts featured tracks that Beck crafted with his father, composer David Campbell, whose string arrangements on the discs "Sea Change“ (2002) and ”Morning Phase" (2014) established the groundwork for these orchestral concerts.

Going orchestral was a natural next step for Beck, who has won eight Grammy Awards (out of 22 nominations). “Looking through my records, I realized there were a couple of dozen songs that had orchestra on them, so there was a lot to draw from. I think we were all surprised at how [the orchestral concerts] went and that led to more shows,” Beck told the site Wallpaper this spring. "Now they’ve kind of taken on a life of their own."

A longtime classical music aficionado, Beck used to make “weekly pilgrimages” to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, earlier in his career. “There is something about that sound [of orchestral music] that is spiritual,” Beck said in an interview last year with the Associated Press. “I can’t quite put my finger on it. But I would walk out of there feeling a bit different, like somebody washed my brain. I don’t know how else to describe it, but it felt like something that I needed” — especially now that he’s older (he turned 55 on July 8).

Beck describes these concerts as “a magical human experience,” made all the more special because the concerts come together with little rehearsal. The actual concert marks “the first time we’re playing together,” he said. “It’s the first time they’re playing the songs. But the music is all written out, and they play it perfectly. It’s a bit miraculous because you’re used to rehearsing for many weeks or months. But this is sort of an instantaneous kind of magical human experiment, where you just bring dozens and dozens of people together, and then it somehow works. It’s still a bit of a novelty to me.”

His orchestral concerts are more about the music, in several ways. “For me, it’s more focused on the singing,” he said. “And typically, when we’re doing a regular tour, there’s much more production happening. The energy is really different. It’s more of a rock show energy, which means that we’re all running around, and there’s a kind of kinetic thing happening with everybody reacting in a more physical, visceral way. This is just kind of more purely about the songs and the music. You’re taken in by the sound of the orchestra.”

Often when non-classical vocalists perform with orchestras, "they just do strings on top of the hits [arrangements,“ said Outwater, who joins Beck for almost every date on this tour. ”Orchestras and orchestration live on a lot of his tracks, and I think the tracks on ’Sea Change’ and [its 2014 sequel] ’Morning Phase’ breathe in a more symphonic way,“ said Outwater in an interview with the site Wallpaper. ”I knew that orchestra would have a role that wasn’t just background but was part of the whole sound world. When I work with rock artists, that’s the most appealing situation to be in."

Beck did a warm-up for this tour by performing two concerts April 19-20 at the Royal Albert Hall in London (Outwater led the first performance, while Grammy winner Troy Miller handled the second.)

Due to those Royal Albert Hall concerts and his summer orchestral tour, many have speculated that Beck might take an orchestral turn on his next album. The Wallpaper article noted that Beck has been in the studio with an orchestra. But he didn’t specifically confirm that hint.

But Beck did marvel at “the monumental human effort” required for an orchestral concert. “I think that’s what touches people and what they recognize when they come to the show,” Beck told Wallpaper. "They’re seeing something that can’t really be simulated by AI or a computer program. It’s actual. And the feeling that it gives you is really rarefied."