In Thursday’s (7/18) San Diego Union-Tribune, James Chute writes about Arnie Roth, whose most recent performance conducting “Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy” took place on July 18 with the San Diego Symphony. “Roth insists he didn’t have any grand plan for planetary domination when it comes to conducting symphonic concerts of video game music” and “was merely looking for repertoire for his ensemble, the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra. A colleague mentioned that serious, symphonic concerts of video game music were common in Japan, but untried in the U.S. … ‘We decided to try it in Chicago in February of 200,’ said Roth, who won a Grammy as a member of Mannheim Steamroller. … The synergy between video game music and symphony orchestras is reflected by the list of orchestras who have requested Roth’s services (in addition to San Diego): the London Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, BBC Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Tokyo Philharmonic, to name a few. Roth credits ‘Final Fantasy’ composer Nobuo Uematsu for putting symphonic music (among other genres) into video games.”
Posted July 23, 2013
