Orchestra pranks their conductor on his birthday in the BEST way

When it’s your conductor’s birthday and you’ve got a concert, there’s only one thing to do.

29-year-old Lahav Shani is an accomplished Israeli pianist and the chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

In this video, he was expecting to conduct Strauss’s Radetzky March at a New Year’s Concert for 2,100 people.

That day also happened to be Lahav’s 29th birthday, so his orchestra decided to surprise him with a very sweet, unexpected blast of ‘Happy Birthday’.

Here’s the conductor’s face when he realised they weren’t playing Strauss:

via GIPHY

This is what happened when everyone in the audience decided to join in:

via GIPHY

It seems Lahav was pretty pleased with the surprise...

via GIPHY

Awww.

Here’s the Vienna Philharmonic playing the actual Radetzky March, by Johann Strauss I.

For more videos from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, find them on Facebook.