LORD OF THE RINGS Comes to the Auditorium in Chicago With 238 Piece Orchestra

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, In Concert, is coming to Chicago's landmark, The Auditorium. Howard Shore's Academy and Grammy Award-winning score will be presented live, in concert. Experience the epic motion picture and its legendary score beneath a 60-foot screen accompanied by 238 musicians, including symphony orchestra, chorus and soloists, March 13 and 14, 2026.

This Production of The Lord of the Rings, In Concert, is presented by CAMI Music, and follows over 15 years of sold-out performances across the globe. Celebrating the film's 25th anniversary, this marks a return to the Chicago area for the first time in eight years following the last series of performances at the Ravinia Festival.

The live performances of Howard Shore's score of The Lord of the Rings, In Concert, are unmatched in the movie-going experience – the iconic score having been voted No .1 in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

The epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring(2001), The Two Towers (2002), The Return of the King (2003) – directed by Peter Jackson and based on the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien novel became an international phenomenon.  Released by New Line Cinema, the trilogy is among the highest earning films of all time and won a total of 17 Academy Awards.  Howard Shore was honored with Academy Awards for Original Score for The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Return of the King (2003), and for Original Song for “Into the West,” featured in The Return of the King (2003). Shore's work on the trilogy was also honored with two Golden Globes and four Grammy Awards.

Howard Shore commented on the return of The Fellowship of the Ring, In Concert to Chicago: “The Lord of the Rings has been translated into 40 languages and has attracted a global fan-base, but the fan community doesn't often have the opportunity to come together in person and coalesce around a performance at this high level. There is something unique and powerful that happens – a synergy is created in bringing together the music – live on a large scale, with the films, in a magnificent house.”

Howard Shore is one of today's premier composers whose music is performed in concert halls around the world by the most prestigious orchestras and conductors. Shore's work with Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings earned him three Academy Awards, four Grammys, and two Golden Globes as well as numerous critic and festival awards. He has scored over 100 films including seventeen films by David Cronenberg and six by Martin Scorsese. His concert works include a symphony, an opera, a Latin mass, three concertos, two song cycles and more. He is an Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France, the recipient of Canada's Governor General's Performing Arts Award and is an officer of the Order of Canada.