Video game concerts draw packed crowds

Donald Milton III, a 21-year-old junior at Michigan who also was in the choir, remembers humming harmonies to the music when he played "Final Fantasy" as a kid, even when the music in early versions of the game wasn't generated by much more than a keyboard synthesizer.

"Music from a game like this can pull people in to hear some of the classics," Milton says.

Andrew Bales, president of Symphony Silicon Valley, agrees that Uematsu's compositions holds their own among classical repertoire. After deciding that his orchestra would play a "Final Fantasy" concert in San Francisco next Monday, Bales recently gave the orchestra's timpanist a compact disc of the music to listen to.

"He said, `You know, I'm pretty impressed. This is going to be a good concert,'" says Bales, who's already planning on a second "Final Fantasy" concert next year.

Orchestra representatives from such cities as Atlanta and Cleveland also are considering joining the tour, says Arnie Roth, music director and principal conductor for the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra. And he believes they are wise to do so.

"It's not an easy time for most arts organization," Roth says, noting that the St. Louis Symphony is currently on strike.

"I can't imagine why people wouldn't want to jump on this type of show. It's an automatic way to expand your audience," says Roth, who's also a member of the group Mannheim Steamroller, which currently has one of the top-grossing concert tours in the country.

Others in the industry say it's a matter of orchestras losing their stuffy image.

"You don't want to make it seem like you have to be retired and driving your Lexus in order to listen to classical music," says Alan Fletcher, head of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University.

For his part, composer Uematsu — who's made appearances on stage at each "Final Fantasy" concert — says the U.S. response has been gratifying.

"If I felt that the music was inferior in comparison to other music that is out," he says, "I wouldn't hold a concert, especially outside of Japan."

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