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Striking a Chord: Creating Music for Disney Parks | D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 4K
Aug 19, 2026
Here is an updated, accurate YouTube video description based directly on the panel transcript:
Striking a Chord: Creating Music for Disney Parks | D23 2026 4K 🎶🏰✨
Ever wonder how music brings Disney theme parks, parade routes, and nighttime spectaculars to life? Live from D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, join Matthew Selby (Principal Music Producer, Disney Live Entertainment) and Mary Webster (Senior Creative Director of Music, Walt Disney Imagineering) for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how Disney music is created!
In this full panel, Matthew and Mary pull back the curtain on the creative process behind land atmospheric loops, attraction soundtracks, and live entertainment. Learn how they collaborate across departments to bring unforgettable audio experiences to life for park guests around the globe!
Documenting these landmark panel presentations, Imagineering insights, and fan community gatherings is a core piece of our "Disney and positive stuff" mission. Bringing you front-row, pristine coverage of these creative behind-the-scenes moments is exactly the kind of optimistic reporting we love to share with our community!
What is your absolute favorite piece of music or background loop in any Disney park? Let us know in the comments below! 👇🎵
Panel Highlights 🕒
0:00 – Opening Introduction & Panel Welcome
1:09 – Imagineering vs. Live Entertainment: Designing Parks Soundtracks
1:54 – Collaborations: Fire of the Rising Moon Fireworks & Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
4:08 – Mixing Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (Mando & Grogu Mission) Overnight in the Ride
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:05
[music]
0:10
What's up, D23? You know, one of the
0:13
most important parts of an attraction is
0:15
the music. Hitting just the right notes
0:18
can really help an attraction resonate
0:20
with guests. How do Imagineers do it?
0:23
Let's find out.
0:26
[music]
0:34
>> [applause]
0:38
>> Well, good evening. Wow. Good evening,
0:41
D23. I'm Matthew Selby. I'm a principal
0:44
music producer for Disney Live
0:46
Entertainment.
0:48
>> Hello, D23. I'm Mary Webster. I'm a
0:51
senior creative director of music for
0:53
Walt Disney Imagineering and we're here
0:56
to talk about what we do for the parks
0:59
in this super bright light. It's really
1:02
great.
1:04
>> So, Mary, why don't you tell them what
1:06
your team does first?
1:08
[laughter]
1:09
>> Uh, okay. So when you're walking around
1:12
the parks and you hear music in a land
1:15
or you're sitting over on Smother's Run
1:17
and you hear those great iconic themes,
1:19
that's what my team does. Uh we do music
1:22
for attractions, Q- lines and also the
1:25
background music in the lands. What
1:27
about you, Matthew?
1:29
>> So I work in live entertainment. So, we
1:31
take care of in my department, we take
1:33
care of the uh World of Color type
1:35
shows, the fireworks shows, any like
1:38
dapper dance, Furly Band, all of that
1:41
stuff. That's part of my overview as
1:43
Disney Live Entertainment,
1:48
>> which is that.
1:50
>> That's us.
1:50
>> We're moving forward. Uh why don't you
1:52
tell them what we've done together?
1:54
Since we have two different teams, we
1:56
sometimes get to collaborate, which is
1:58
awesome.
2:01
Yes, we do. And one of those great
2:03
collaborations was the fireworks show at
2:05
the new Star Wars Galaxy's Edge in
2:08
Disneyland Fire of the Rising Moon.
2:12
>> Yeah. So,
2:14
if you've been to Star Wars Galaxy's
2:16
Edge, you know that the fireworks are
2:18
incredibly loud because they're
2:20
incredibly close behind the scenes at
2:23
Galaxy's Edge. So, one of the uh one of
2:26
the things that we noticed was that
2:29
there's no sound happening during those
2:31
fireworks shows. There's sound like on
2:34
Main Street. If you're watching Wondrous
2:36
Journeys, then you hear the the
2:37
soundtrack to Wonders Journeys on Main
2:39
Street, but you're not hearing any music
2:41
in Star Wars Galaxy's Edge. So, we
2:42
decided to retrofit music to fit the
2:47
Wonders Journey shows or the Remember
2:48
Dream Come True uh Dreams Come True
2:51
show, but with music that would work in
2:54
Galaxy's Edge. And so, Mary and I got to
2:56
do that. Got to go um record a great
2:59
orchestra doing that. It was very fun.
3:02
>> Yes, it was super fun fun. And before
3:04
that, we collaborated on on Tiana's
3:07
Bayou Adventure. Uh, my department
3:10
created the new songs and the new
3:12
underscore. We got to collaborate with
3:14
PJ Morton on Special Spice and the
3:17
composer Terrence Blanchard for the rest
3:19
of the show.
3:21
>> Nice.
3:23
Um, and there um, even though Mary's
3:26
part they worked on the attraction, we
3:28
wanted to do a grand opening celebration
3:31
to launch Tiana's Bayou Adventure. So,
3:35
we had, as you can see, Ana Noni Rose
3:39
and Jennifer Lewis and PJ Martin came
3:41
and joined us and we did a big show on
3:44
the Mark Twain with the band down in
3:46
front. Um, and did some of the songs
3:49
from that as part of the grand opening
3:52
celebration and then it culminated with
3:54
Special Spice, which is super fun.
3:59
So, oh yeah, sorry. The new mission on
4:03
Smugglers Run. That was you. Yeah,
4:07
>> it was me.
4:08
>> Why? Um, so
4:11
Oh, yeah. You were a star of the recent
4:12
episode of what is it called? Disney
4:14
Parks Unscripted.
4:16
>> Yes. Okay.
4:16
>> They had a whole show if you haven't
4:18
seen it. Disney Parks Unscripted. They
4:20
go through rides. They go through all
4:22
sorts of stuff. And it's true behind the
4:23
scenes as we're working. So,
4:26
>> so I think we're going to watch a clip
4:27
from that and then Mary's going to
4:29
explain what the heck happened here.
4:34
>> There we go.
4:43
>> Rebel Pearl is it's just totally getting
4:47
lost in this build. um where the
4:49
trackers come out the first part of the
4:51
cube
4:56
and bring it up and then you could duck
4:58
it when when all the sound effects come
5:00
in and we need to hear the trackers.
5:01
Like I'm fine if the music then kind of
5:04
takes a backseat. I'd like to push the
5:05
music a little more in there. I know
5:07
there's a lot going on, but it gives us
5:08
that story thread of like we still are
5:11
doing something. We're still going. So
5:12
when you get that duh duh and you crash,
5:16
it feels like that's the payoff of it.
5:18
You know, it like drives the story a
5:20
little bit more.
5:23
>> So what does all of that mean? What are
5:25
you doing there? You're clearly in
5:28
Smuggler's Run, like actually in the
5:30
attraction, right?
5:31
>> Yeah. So I worked on the original
5:33
Smuggler's Run. I was part of the music
5:34
team that brought that music to life.
5:36
So, it was really fun to come back and
5:38
do it all again with a new mission,
5:40
Mando Grou, pulling all these new
5:42
classic themes into the ride. So, this
5:46
showcases one of the final steps in our
5:49
process. We go out, we make the demos,
5:52
we record it, but how do we get it
5:54
actually in the park or in the
5:57
attraction? So, for this particular one,
5:59
they decided they wanted us on third
6:01
shift. Uh, so that's 8:00 PM to 3 or 4
6:05
a.m. So, hence the bags under my eyes
6:08
and my kind of, you know, kind of
6:11
intense tone.
6:13
This is at the end of a very long week.
6:15
And we just ride the ride over and over
6:18
and over with a team of individuals and
6:20
we make notes and we mix and mix and
6:23
dialogue, against visuals, against
6:25
motion based and we do it until we're
6:27
happy or the ride opens.
6:30
>> So, I have a question for you. How do
6:32
you Is there somebody with a mixing
6:35
board like on the like somewhere in this
6:37
scene?
6:38
>> That's actually a really good question
6:40
and I actually think they have um they
6:42
show it over here at the Spunkers Run
6:44
booth there. This is integrated with
6:46
Wise, which is an audio engine for the
6:49
Unreal uh video game engine. So, we
6:52
actually had a tech from uh Sky Sound
6:56
come and mix this thing in Wise. So, we
6:59
have one pod that's got ProTools in it,
7:01
and we're mixing to the best of our
7:03
abilities just the music by itself, and
7:05
then we take that, put it in this pod,
7:08
print the stems, and we do it in twice.
7:11
So, it's a lot of what can you do? Can
7:13
we do this? Can we do that? Can we lower
7:15
this here? Can we lower that there?
7:17
>> That's amazing. And the buck stops with
7:19
you, right? So, since you're in charge,
7:21
or is there somebody above you that's
7:23
>> Our creative director was Assa Kamala.
7:26
He's done a lot of interviews about this
7:29
particular ride and so really it's us
7:32
going through audio reviews on our own
7:34
and then he comes in and he plays back.
7:36
Some folks from Sky Sound also come um
7:38
they give opinions and suggestions and
7:41
it's actually a really collaborative
7:42
team like we all everyone was so proud
7:45
and energetic about the music on this
7:47
attraction. Has anybody written anybody?
7:49
Anybody? Yeah. Yeah. So, a lot of new
7:52
themes, right? We have the force theme.
7:54
We have um we integrated Mando uh the
7:57
Mando and Grou theme. So uh everyone was
8:00
actually really happy with what we did
8:02
and pushing the music forward a little
8:04
bit more than the last mission. So
8:05
that's pretty cool.
8:06
>> Nice.
8:08
>> But that's not all. Mary's very Mary's
8:10
very very busy.
8:11
>> I'm prolific.
8:14
Um before uh Smugglers Run, um I had the
8:18
pleasure of working on the new expansion
8:20
to Disney Adventure World. Uh this was
8:23
the Disney Adventure Way. Uh it early
8:25
opened earlier this year in March and it
8:29
extends all the way back to Frozen. Uh
8:33
it also features a couple themed
8:36
gardens. One's right here. This is our
8:39
we nicknamed it the English garden. It
8:42
has characters and statues based on the
8:45
kind of classic London animated films
8:48
Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, 101
8:50
Dalmatians. And we also have the tangled
8:52
garden which is right here. Um which has
8:56
a couple Easter eggs of Tangled themes
9:00
like mother knows best etc. And then
9:02
this is um it's not really a garden but
9:04
it's just the walkway that extends it
9:06
back into Toy Story.
9:09
>> Cool.
9:10
>> Anybody been to Paris? Ah
9:13
>> yeah. I was just telling Mary backstage
9:15
that I've done music for all of the
9:18
parks, but I've never been to Paris and
9:20
I've never stepped on a cruise line. Not
9:23
yet.
9:23
>> Not yet.
9:24
>> So, bucket list. Uh, what what's this?
9:27
>> Uh, so this is Adventure Bay. So, the
9:31
whole concept of this is that Adventure
9:33
Way was the crossroads between the front
9:36
of the park and the immersive areas that
9:38
are going to go in beyond. We've already
9:40
opened Frozen, the new Frozen Land. Very
9:43
exciting. And soon to come is our new
9:46
Lion King. Um, and it's also um home to
9:50
in the Tangled Garden right next to it
9:52
is a new Tangled themed uh teacup ride
9:55
named Rapon's Tangled Spin. It's very
9:58
cute. Um, and the other feature, which
10:01
you can kind of see in this, which is
10:04
right over here, is the new restaurant.
10:07
So, we also do these for restaurants.
10:09
So, that's the Regal View Restaurant and
10:12
Lounge. So, this one was actually really
10:14
fun. We took it's a princess meet and
10:17
greet uh in a sit-down restaurant. It's
10:19
very beautiful. Has floor to ceiling
10:21
windows, velvet chairs, very nice. And
10:24
so, we decided to um take all the
10:28
princess themes, part of your world,
10:29
colors in the winds and wind and
10:31
reimagine them in a French
10:34
impressionistic style. So, in the bar
10:37
area, you have a solo piano as if you're
10:40
in a lounge playing these beautiful
10:41
piano themes. And as you walk into the
10:45
uh the restaurant part, you actually get
10:47
this little compressed uh hallway and we
10:49
bleed in the orchestra background. By
10:51
the time you get to the restaurant, it's
10:53
a full piano plus orchestra track. It's
10:55
very beautiful.
10:56
>> That's amazing.
10:57
>> Yeah.
10:57
>> I'm learning something along the way.
10:59
>> And then,
11:00
>> yes. So, as part of this, we had the
11:03
opportunity to do a brand new theme for
11:06
the park. We hired a composer, Philippe
11:09
Romy. He's local to Paris. Um, very
11:13
prolific, award-winning.
11:15
And we titled it Adventure Way Symphonic
11:17
Suite. Go look it up on Spotify. It's
11:19
totally released. We recorded it at the
11:22
iconic Abbey Road in Studio 1 with the
11:25
London Symphony Orchestra. Um, I think
11:27
there's a video. We can take a listen.
11:34
>> [music]
11:36
>> Yeah.
11:40
[music]
11:46
Heat.
11:53
>> [music]
11:59
[music]
12:04
[music]
12:14
>> Yeah, Mary.
12:16
>> Yes, that was super cool. And there's
12:19
actually a lot of Instagram stuff with
12:21
Philipe Romy, so go check it out. Philip
12:23
Romy.
12:25
>> Okay, so Matthew, your turn.
12:27
>> Okay, fine.
12:28
>> That sounds great. Uh, so anybody
12:31
recognize this? Yes. I had the pleasure
12:34
of working on the the 70th anniversary
12:37
celebration of Disneyland cuz that's my
12:39
home turf. And um this is called
12:42
Tapestry of Happiness, which was uh we
12:45
called it a love letter to the park. and
12:47
it's on the iconic facade of It's a
12:51
Small World as you can see. And the goal
12:52
was to use the art of Mary Blair, who's
12:55
a legendary Disney artist. Um that that
12:59
was we wanted to put all that art in a
13:01
vibrant um kind of what's it called?
13:06
Well, I can't think of the word, but
13:08
anyway, we wanted to do a vibrant show
13:10
of uh but then we had to
13:13
put some music with it. and 70 years of
13:15
music. It's a lot of years of music to
13:18
come through. And uh we thought, oh, you
13:21
know, it'll be like a half hour show,
13:22
like a fireworks show or maybe 20
13:24
minutes. It was a 6-minute show or it is
13:27
a 6-minute show. Um so,
13:30
and music um the music that we do for
13:34
like the fireworks, World of Color is
13:37
the complete opposite of what you would
13:38
do for film or TV scores. So usually in
13:42
film and TV they write the script and
13:43
then they film the script with all the
13:45
actors and then the music comes in at
13:47
the last uh part of that to underscore
13:50
everything and and the big themes come
13:52
in. This uh type of show that we do we
13:56
are always required to do the music
13:58
first. So we come up with the script of
14:00
how the story is supposed to go but then
14:03
the music really decides how the visuals
14:05
are going to get put in there. So it's
14:08
it's uh a complete flip and then the
14:11
extra challenge of trying to squeeze 70
14:13
years of themes into six minutes. So uh
14:16
worked with a great composer arranger on
14:18
that and I think this is a cliff.
14:22
Yeah.
14:27
[music]
14:35
>> [music]
14:40
[music]
14:46
[music]
14:52
>> Heat. [music]
14:53
Heat.
15:03
>> [music]
15:08
>> Heat.
15:10
[music]
15:11
Heat.
15:19
[music]
15:21
Heat. Heat.
15:25
[music]
15:32
[music]
15:36
[music]
15:42
>> [music]
15:43
>> the mountain.
15:47
[music]
15:48
As I say, we're just getting started.
15:56
[music]
16:03
>> [music]
16:09
>> Wow,
16:09
>> we had to squeeze some fireworks in
16:10
there somewhere. Yeah. So, lots of
16:12
challenges. I had forgotten that we also
16:14
needed to incorporate within 6 minutes
16:16
the celebrate happy song, which is the
16:19
song that we um commissioned to have
16:21
written for the celebration that the
16:23
Jonas Brothers sang. Um so that was the
16:26
through line. Um, but you could hear
16:28
that there were like, you know, Grim
16:29
Granny Ghost was 5 seconds and Moana was
16:32
just, you know, not even a vocal, just a
16:35
little bit of the theme there to cram it
16:37
all in.
16:38
>> Incredibly impressive.
16:41
>> Uh, and that that requires a whole bunch
16:44
of experts to get that installed. So,
16:47
like Mary did with going out in
16:49
Smugglers Run in the middle of the
16:50
night, we went out to It's a Small World
16:52
and sat there with a ProTools rig and we
16:55
had also put a bunch of sound effects
16:56
in. So, we had to make sure that the
16:58
sound effects um read in the space so
17:01
that you can hear them so that you
17:03
attach the sound effects to what you're
17:04
seeing. Um so, it's a whole bunch of
17:07
people that we use for that. And then if
17:09
you think that's a lot, then we had even
17:11
more people for a parade. Any of our
17:14
parades requires uh an army of uh people
17:18
to
17:20
>> a little army. So this was the magic
17:22
happens parade which I was super proud
17:24
of. Um
17:27
we had Todrick Hall hired Todrick Hall
17:30
to come uh write us a song and he is so
17:34
prolific that he actually wrote us three
17:36
songs to choose from. And uh part of my
17:39
challenge was I didn't want to lose any
17:41
of that. So, I decided, let's figure a
17:43
way to make all three work, which was
17:46
kind of cool. So, if you've experienced
17:48
a Disney parade, which I imagine you
17:49
have, um, it kind of all goes along in
17:52
the same tempo. And one of the songs and
17:55
and the song that he wrote dictated the
17:57
tempo of the parade. So, then we did the
17:59
rest of the arrangements to fit that.
18:01
Um, but the finale song he wrote was in
18:04
a completely different tempo. So, I had
18:06
to do some heavy duty math to try to
18:08
figure out how to make it sound not
18:10
cacophinous, but still be able to use
18:12
this um piece of music that Todd wrote.
18:15
So, that's that. Let's see what else do
18:18
we have for you. Oh, and then this is my
18:20
absolute favorite of all time. Um this
18:23
was only one Did anybody see Muppets
18:26
Christmas Carol? So good.
18:27
>> Awesome. Thank you. Um, this is my
18:30
favorite thing because this was just
18:31
postco times and so the creative
18:34
director and I uh just sat in our home
18:36
studios and we're like what do we want
18:38
the muppets to say? What do we want them
18:40
to sing? Um, this was an idea that I had
18:43
that uh that we would do deck the halls
18:46
but that the chickens instead of singing
18:48
fa la would sing.
18:51
So that's this one. [music]
18:54
[singing]
18:59
>> [music]
18:59
>> Come on everybody, let's dig the holes
19:02
with some [music]
19:07
season to be charie. [music]
19:13
>> Yeah,
19:14
>> so charming.
19:15
>> It was super fun. And it only lasted um
19:17
one year, which is very sad for me, but
19:20
it was just a total blast to work on.
19:22
Super awesome. Uh, okay. What's this,
19:25
Mary? Tell me what this
19:26
>> up next. Yes. So, currently me and my
19:29
teams are working on a lot of upcoming
19:31
stuff. Some of the stuff you've heard
19:33
about. So, we're working on the new
19:35
villains music for the Villains Land and
19:37
Magic Kingdom.
19:39
Uh, and also the new Monstropolis Land
19:42
coming. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To Disney
19:45
Hollywood Studios. Uh, it's been awesome
19:47
to be able to dive into all this music,
19:49
the rich catalog, all the animated
19:51
films. Um, lots and treats, lots of
19:54
treats for y'all in this example.
19:59
>> Oh, these are just a couple extra
20:01
things. So, I worked on Mickey Mouse,
20:04
Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live,
20:06
which is the most difficult title to
20:09
remember and say in front of people. Um,
20:11
but that was a super fun project. We
20:14
brought in a composer, Brandon Rogers,
20:16
to compose five new songs for that. Has
20:18
anybody seen that little thing? Yeah.
20:21
That's a fun one. You should check it
20:23
out. It's a It's an all ages type of
20:25
thing, even though it's kind of meant
20:26
for the littles. Um, and then this one
20:28
is coming up. I think it starts this
20:32
next week. This is Madame Leota's
20:35
Swinging Wake. Um, it's a kind of a
20:38
parade for Oogie Boogie Bash. It's not
20:40
kind of a parade, it is a parade for
20:42
OogieOogie Boogie Bash and opens this
20:44
week. And we did a new song for that and
20:46
uh some other treats for you on that.
20:49
Super fun.
20:53
That's it for us, y'all. So, next time
20:55
you're in the park and you hear some
20:56
music in the land or on your favorite
20:58
ride, think of us and, you know, smile.
21:04
[laughter]
21:05
>> Okay, thanks guys.
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