Movie soundtracks come alive at Hamilton Gardens this weekend

Fiona Pears performing with the string section

Sound tracks to famous films will come to life with Symphony at the Movies at the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival with the Hamilton Trust Waikato Symphony Orchestra.

Performing tracks from movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, and Schindler's List, the night is a family event, said orchestra member Matthew Pryor.

"It is lighter than most classical type concerts are, a lot of people wouldn't normally go to see a full symphonic orchestra, an 80-piece choir, come along for the other factors like the laser lights."

The performance will include a laser lights show, complete with cannons firing, to finish the evening.

Fiona Pears, an international contemporary violin player, will be performing with the orchestra and will be performing several of her own works.

The show is free and was previously called the Sunset Symphony, and will take place at 7.30pm on Sunday, February 23 on the Rhododendron lawn.

The orchestra has a woodwind section, percussion, brass, string, and will be joined by four choirs who are coming together for the night.

"The orchestra is made up of amateurs like me that we just do because we love it, right through to teachers and performance music students at the university.

"We get funding from Trust Waikato for a few scholarships next year. If they are doing music at the university we will [be able to] give them scholarship for that and in turn they come and play for us."

As a trust, they have received funding for the evening, spending $10,000 on the finale.

"We've actively been seeking to find funding from different organisations to do something that is free for Hamilton, which is going to just as good, if not better [than a paid show]."