Video game concerts draw packed crowds

By Martha Irvine

updated 6:50 p.m. ET March 2, 2005

ROSEMONT, Ill. - Liam Conlon doesn't fit the profile of your typical classical concertgoer. But when the high school freshman recently discovered that a show featuring music from the computer game "Final Fantasy" would be playing near his suburban Chicago home, he could hardly believe it.

"Wowwww!" he muttered to himself as he perused a Web page with concert info. "It's here!"

He and a friend snapped up a pair of fifth-row tickets to the Rosemont Theatre concert and joined the cheering, sellout crowd of nearly 4,500 that turned out to see the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra play. Above the stage, images from the game — a theatrical and multi-chaptered quest to save the world — played on giant video screens.

The response — including several standing ovations — was much the same last year when the Los Angeles Philharmonic played the music at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

"We never envisioned that we were going to be playing video game music," conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya said, drawing appreciative laughter from audience members, many of them in their teens and 20s and decked out in everything from tuxes and gowns to jeans and T-shirts.

It was a scene many orchestras would envy at a time when classical groups continue to struggle financially, and when some are branching out to try new formats as a means for survival.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, for instance, started "Symphony With a Splash," a program aimed at young professionals that begins with a cocktail hour.

The North Carolina Symphony recently played a concert that featured a slide show of photos taken by young people. And the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra has played a popular series featuring the music from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, among others films.

This latest tour — called "Dear Friends, the Music from Final Fantasy" — pushes the boundaries further by featuring music that, while largely unknown to classical or mainstream music listeners, is huge among computer gamers.

"It raised the bar for computer game music," says Jonathan Smith, a 19-year-old freshman from the University of Michigan who was part of the choir that helped open the concert with "Liberi Fatali," the dramatic introductory number from "Final Fantasy VIII" that serious players instantly recognize.

For them, the music tells a story — and reminds them of epic battles fought and love won and lost on the computer screen. And while some classical music buffs might roll their eyes, to them, the music's creator, 55-year-old Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu, is on par with any rock star.

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