“Professional orchestras have toured the tunes of Zelda, Street Fighter and other video games across North America,” writes Allan Woods in Saturday’s (8/20) Toronto Star (Canada). “But Quebec’s largest city is one of the few to have its own dedicated video-game orchestra made up of serious musicians…. L’Orchestre de Jeux Video (‘The Video Game Orchestra’) was launched in 2008 by a group of musical gamers around Montreal…. As in other cities to feature classical music ensembles playing pieces inspired by video games, the movement is earning credit for ushering a new generation into the audiences and helping keep concert halls full, said Jonathan Dagenais, the orchestra’s conductor…. ‘Sometimes it’s more like a rock show because everyone is so hyped in the audience by the music that we’re doing,’ Dagenais said…. The orchestra was created in 2008 as a bit of a gamble, said co-founder Sebastien Wall-Lacelle. They were barely two dozen musicians in the group…. Some eight years later, the orchestra counts 55 musicians ranging in age from music students in their 20s to a 52-year-old trumpet player…. The next concert, in February 2017, will be the orchestra’s largest and most important to date [at] Maison symphonique, which has a capacity of more than 2,000 people.”
Posted August 23, 2016
