Cooper asked the above question and I thought I’d answer here so all you curious folk might learn about this as well. You may consider yourselves quite blessed. 🙂
Here you go, from this page:
Brought to vibrant life by Symphony Silicon Valley and Chorale, the PLAY! concert features award-winning orchestral music from popular video game titles including Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, The Legend Of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., World Of Warcraft, Sonic The Hedgehog, Shenmue as well as titles that haven’t even been released such as Lost Odyssey, and Darkness. Outstanding graphics on large screens above the orchestra will accompany the scores to highlight memorable moments from the games.
We’ve done similar concerts twice; I played the first one. They sell out. People come in costume. They recognize tunes very quickly and start cheering. They are mostly younger people, the sort we don’t see a lot of in our usual concerts. For two hours we can all enjoy the cheering, hooting and hollering and feel (well, sort of) like rock stars. And it’s fun.
Is it selling out? I dunno. I do know it’s my last gig of the season and then I’ll be worrying about money, so I’m extremely happy to have the work!
I hate playing schlocky music, but when I played the last video game concert it wasn’t bad stuff. I didn’t feel the same way I felt playing some pretty darn rotten pops concerts, where we play butchered rock tunes re-written very poorly for a symphony orchestra.
In any case, now you know what a “video game concert” is, Cooper. As do others! 🙂
I love gaming, and some of the soundtracks are wonderful….. I have loved the music for Final Fantasy since the very first game came out almost 20 years ago. The Elder Scrolls games, especially Morrowind and Oblivion, have terrific music by Jeremy Soules, I believe. What a great idea for a concert! Did the same person arrange every piece?
I haven’t seen the music yet, and I don’t know if we’ll get it ahead of time or not. The last time we played this it was a Final Fantasy concert, and that was all done by the one composer (who attended the show) who, I believe, has done all the music …?? (You’d know that, maybe?)
I know nothing about video games … not my cuppa tea or anything. Two of my kids are into WoW, and Jameson had Final Fantasy games for a while … recently I’ve not seen what he’s playing, though. I do find it interesting that some of this stuff uses a symphony. And kids say they hate that kind of music. Hah! 😉
definetely an interesting concept! Thanks for the description Patty!