In Tuesday’s (4/15) Tampa Bay Times (Florida), Stephanie Hayes writes, “Back in the 1980s, the notion of an orchestra playing music from video games would have been laughable. A flute flourish when the duck bites it on Duck Hunt? A violin crescendo when Frogger rides a crocodile off screen? But not anymore. Modern video game music is getting a sophisticated treatment Saturday with rePLAY: Symphony of Heroes, a concert from the Florida Orchestra and the University of South Florida chamber singers. … The orchestra put on a video games concert last year. It attracted a crowd mostly under age 30 … These games have sweeping melodic scores and orchestral arrangements complex enough to rival any soundtracks to movies or theater. … Guest conductor Amy Andersson will lead the musicians in works from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Journey, Guild Wars, Kingdom Hearts, BioShock, Lair, God of War: Ascension, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Portal 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Chrono, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Lost Odyssey, Shadow of the Colossus and Halo. … At the orchestra’s video game performance in 2013, some people cosplayed their favorite characters. Isn’t it a gamer’s dream to hear symphonic selections from World of Warcraft while dressed as Malfurion Stormrage? Of course it is.”
Posted April 18, 2014
