Seven Lions and the Seattle Symphony – Opus Harmonia (Electronic and Orchestral Music Combine In One Fantastical Night)

It’s rare for fans of electronic music to find themselves seeing one of their favorite artists outside of the settings of nightclubs, music festivals, dive bars, or venues meant for things like rock concerts. On Friday, September 25th, 2026, a crowd of over 2,000 fans of one prominent electronic music artist found themselves in what many saw as a very unfamiliar setting, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, WA.

As I came to find out during my pre-concert interview with Jeff Montalvo (perhaps most well known by his artist name Seven Lions), the concert we were there to witness was a long time in the making. The brainchild of Montalvo and the Seattle Symphony‘s Associate Director of Popular Programming and Composer/Arranger Andrew Joslyn, the concert I attended, Opus Harmonia is the reimagining/reinterpretation of 17 well-known Seven Lions songs and instrumentals for orchestra and live singers.

Opus Harmonia marks the first time that the Seattle Symphony has collaborated with a composer/producer of electronic music and the first time that Seven Lions has been able to bring his compositions to life with a full orchestra.

Conducted by Norman Huynh, 50 members of the Seattle Symphony, Seven Lions, and the phenomenal line up of vocalists including Brieanna Grace, Dylan Matthew, Fiora, Haliene, Jonathan Mendelsohn, and Kerli, Opus Harmonia took the audience on a journey that none of us will forget.

Hearing what would normally be tightly mixed and programmed dubstep drops reinterpreted using tubas and trombones for bass, strings, woodwind, other brass instruments, and percussion instruments as pads, arps, and synth stabs was a real pleasure. One particularly challenging moment that I truly admired was the percussionist whose job it was to play an intricate 1/16 note arpeggio during the song, “Days to Come.”

Each of the vocalists brought their unique abilities in peak form. We got to sing along and even cheer and applaud during each piece which was a unique and beautiful change in pace from the more quiet and polite world of attending a traditional symphony show. I even felt at times that some of the members of the orchestra were really enjoying the real-time feedback from the audience.

It was a true joy to be a small part of this momentous occasion.

Prior to the show, I was able to sit down separately with Seven Lions and Haliene. More to come soon on the Haliene interview.

You can learn more from Jeff directly about Opus Harmonia in my interview below.

Seven Lions interview transcript:

Nick Wax (Magnetic): Tonight, I have the pleasure of sitting down with Jeff Montalvo, the electronic music producer, composer, songwriter, and DJ known by his global fan base as Seven Lions. Jeff has been on a musical journey that spans nearly two decades, and I know a lot of our readers have followed him on that journey.

While many of us are accustomed to seeing him alongside other bass heavy acts in the genres of melodic dubstep, trance, and more club and festival oriented settings, we find ourselves transported in this moment to perhaps one of the least expected places, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington.

We are at the home of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. On any other given Friday night during the Seattle Symphony season, one would expect to hear pieces from Mozart, Handel, Bach, or Beethoven. It’s definitely not where I would have ever thought I’d see a Seven Lions show.

That said, I come from a classical music background and have always found an inexplicable link between electronic and orchestral music. It’s almost showtime here, but before the conductor’s baton drops for the first downbeat, let’s hear from Jeff about how this moment came to be.

Hi, Jeff. How’s’s it going?

Seven Lions: Good. Getting ready for the night.

Magnetic: Excellent. Opus Harmonia feels like a pretty significant new chapter for Seven Lions. Where did the idea for putting your music together with a full orchestra first come from? And what did you envision when you started thinking about what the show could become?

Seven Lions: I think it started with kind of the ATLYS journey when I had a quartet kind of redo some songs and then the idea of doing an orchestra, like a full orchestra was always like the next step and like just a big, yeah, step up.

So. Okay. Couple of years ago, we started talking about it with Symphony and then, I mean, for me, it was like a pipe dream in the first like two or three meetings, and then finally, it started to look like this was really going to happen. So this has been in the works for quite a while now and I’m kind of crazy that it’s finally happening tonight.

But yeah, I mean, it’s… it’s everything I wanted it to be. It’s…The symphony is the star of the show. It’s… There are some stems, but it’s not definitely like… they’re supplemental. So, but yeah, the vocals and the symphony are the main, main thing.

Magnetic: It’s awesome. And once the concept was in place, what was the experience of actually translating the songs into orchestral arrangements? Was there anything about hearing your music interpreted by a 50 piece orchestra that kind of surprised you or changed the way that you thought about some of the songs?

Seven Lions: So Andrew did all of the transcribing and reworking, and he just sent stuff to me and I kind of checked it off or had a few changes, but generally it was all good. So, yeah, I think hearing songs like “Moonlight” that are like all fully classical, like those songs were inspired by classical music. So then it’s funny to hear it like turned in fully into classical music.

I think they work really well and they’re really compelling songs. “Asleep in the Garden of Infernal Stars” is probably one of my favorite. So, yeah, it’s been cool.

Magnetic: I love that. So you’ve played some of the biggest stages in electronic music from EDC to major festivals around the world. How different has the preparation for Opus Harmonia been compared with preparing for a typical Seven Lons festival set? And has working with a more traditional concert setting, change the way that you approach performing your music?

Seven Lions: Yeah, it’s been 100% different Since it’s not a DJ set and I’m playing drums. It’s been… everything about this has been totally different. I had to go into some old projects and bounce some stems from like 2012. So just as far as preparation goes for any like one show, this has by far been the most preparation by like a huge amount. So yeah, I’ve been really, I’ve enjoyed it, though.

I mean, the past two months have been just like drums boot camp, essentially for me. So it’s been fun.

Magnetic: Tremendous. And when you look at the Seven Lions Project now compared with where it started, there’s been such a huge expansion of the music, the live experience and the surrounding world.

How do you think your original vision for Seven Lions has evolved over the years? And what parts of that original idea remain central to what you’re doing today?

Seven Lions: I think the scope of what we’ve been able to do is always, every year, kind of impresses me more and more as far as, you know, the kind of show that we can put on. Immersion has always been the focus since the very beginning, and I think every year we can kind of build a show that has more immersion or, you know, do an album that is more fully cohesive.

So I think it’s all just kind of like building upon the original ideas, which are, you know, immersion and fantasy and a lot of music. So, yeah.

Magnetic: I love that. A lot of that evolution happened alongside your record label, Ophelia, which is grown into a creative world of its own. How has running Ophelia influenced the way you think about Seven Lions as an artist?

And also, with Opus Harmonia bringing together vocalists, like Brieanna Grace, Dylan Matthew, Fiora, Haliene, Jonathan Mendelsohn, and Kerli… (Ooh, I almost ran out of breath…) what has it been like revisiting these songs with the people whose voices helped define them in the first place?

Seven Lions: Oh, it’s been great. I mean, they’re all here and they’re all super excited. It’s nice seeing everybody’s face, too. I work with most of them through email most of the time. So it’s nice hanging out in person. But yeah, I think the Ophelia thing that’s been its own interesting journey.

Tonight feels much more Seven Lions focused than Ophelia, but I mean, I have some friends coming that are on the record label, so there’s always the community that’s like around, which is nice for sure.

Magnetic: Very good. Cool. Well, alright, I really appreciate your time speaking with me this evening. I know, obviously, everybody’s kind of probably got some pre-show jitters and whatnot, but, yeah, this has been great and have an amazing show.

Seven Lions: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Seven Lions interview – full audio

You can listen to the full audio of my interview with Seven Lions HERE.

If you are interested in learning more about Opus Harmonia, Seven Lions, or the Seattle Symphony orchestra, be sure to follow them on their socials.

If you are interested in learning more about Ophelia Records, a great place to start is this article from July about Demo Submissions, Artist Identity, and Ophelia’s A&R process.

For more information on the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, please visit their official website at https://benaroyahall.org/

Special thanks to Paulette, Jordan, and the rest of the team at MLennial.