Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil are packing up a van and starting a virtual road trip through LA next month.
"VAN Beethoven," a van equipped with Oculus virtual reality system (get it? Like Ludwig VAN Beethoven? *clap clap clap*), will travel around Los Angeles, and you'll be able to experience Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in a pretty unique way. Put on the headset (like conductor Gustavo Dudamel is doing below) and you'll get to experience the first five minutes of the well known piece as if you were in Walt Disney Concert Hall, but in a 360-degree immersive experience. The van even has the same carpeting as the hall. That's commitment.
Here's the van's schedule—catch it starting Sept. 11-Oct. 18 mostly parked at Disney Hall, Levitt Pavilion in MacArthur Park, Museum Row, and a few other upcoming city events like CicLAvia, the LA County Fair and more. If you want to see the symphony performed in real life, you're in luck—the LA Phil with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela is performing all nine of Beethoven's symphonies twice this October. Single ticket sales for "Immortal Beethoven" begin tomorrow at 10am.