Videogame symphony concert world tour announced
JMP Productions has announced the first videogame symphony concert world tour, which begins in the US in 2006 and follows the resounding success of Final Fantasy music symphony, Dear Friends.
Following the resounding success of Final Fantasy music concert, JMP Productions has announced that the first videogame symphony concert world tour will kick off in the US next year.
Originally performed in Japan, the two-hour long Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy concert proved so popular that a six-city, seven-show tour of America was organised in 2004. The overwhelmingly positive response to the tour also prompted a further performance with additional musical guests - titled More Friends - in May 2005.
Titled Play! A Videogame Symphony, the new concert is perhaps the most ambitious project yet, and will be the result of a unique collaboration between JMP's Jason Michael Paul and Thomas Boecker, videogame music producer and executive producer of the European Symphonic Game Music concerts.
Maestro Arnie Roth, music director and principle conductor of the Chicagoland Pops, will serve as principle conductor and music director for the tour. The concert will feature music from almost 20 different games, and as at the Dear Friends concerts, huge screens will display images and scenes from the games to accompany the orchestral and choral performances.
Games featured will include Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Shenmue, Silent Hill, Battlefield 1942, Sonic the Hedgehog, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and hugely successful MMOG World of Warcraft.
Arnie Roth, principle conductor and music director of the tour, stated: "This spectacular concert will attract people of all generations to some of the world's greatest concert halls."
More details, including information about tour venues, dates and ticket prices, will be announced on Play-Symphony.com in the run up to the start of the tour.