Video Game Pianist

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Martin Leung
The Video Game Pianist at the London Video Games Live concert
Background information
Born	October 18, 1986 (age 20)
Genre(s)	Video Game Music
Instrument(s)	Piano
Website	videogamepianist.com

The Video Game Pianist, also known as VGP, The Blindfolded Pianist, or his real name Martin Leung, (born October 18, 1986) is one of the first pianists to gain worldwide recognition for playing popular video game music on the piano, both in concert venues and in online videos.

Unlike many recognized musicians, Video Game Pianist's breakthrough occurred almost entirely online when, on May 10th, 2004, a video of him playing the Super Mario Bros theme blindfolded appeared on Muchosucko.

1 Early life
2 Performances
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Born October 18, 1986 in Hong Kong to Chinese and Japanese parents, Video Game Pianist moved to California when he was three years old and began taking interest in the piano at the age of 4 when, after hearing his sister play, he began imitating songs. His parents noticed his potential and enrolled him in piano lessons.

By the late 1990s, Video Game Pianist had developed into a talented musician, placing first two times at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, once in 1998 and once in 2000, and placing third at the 2002 Oberlin Piano Festival. Leung made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2003 at the age of 16 in the Isaac Stern Auditorium, performing Mendelssohn's Concerto No. 1 - Presto.

In 2004, as a high school senior, Video Game Pianist put two of his passions — piano and videogames — together, listening to the music of Super Mario repetitively so he could arrange it for piano [1]. On May 10, 2004, his hard work paid off: the video he and a friend had created of him performing songs from the Super Mario Bros. series blindfolded appeared on Muchosucko [2].

[edit] Performances

After Video Game Pianist’s initial online introduction, which he estimates has been downloaded by more than 40 million people [3], he began performing video game music from other popular gaming series' including Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Halo, Earthworm Jim, and Final Fantasy. As Video Game Pianist released more videos of him performing, showcasing a broader collection of video game music, his work began to show up on iFilm, MSN Video, Ebaums World, Gprime, Muchosucko, and Albino Blacksheep.

In February 2005, noticing Video Game Pianist’s skill and growing popularity, Tommy Tallarico asked Video Game Pianist to join his upcoming Video Games Live tour, the first North American concert tour devoted entirely to video game music. Before making appearances with VGL, Tallarico asked Video Game Pianist to perform at the newly minted Walk of Game and at 2005’s Game Developers Conference’s Game Audio Network Guild Awards (G.A.N.G). In May 2005, he was hired by BradyGames to perform piano at its E3 booth. On July 6, 2005, Video Game Live's premiere, Video Game Pianist performed piano arrangements of Final Fantasy’s "The Prelude" and "One Winged Angel” to approximately 11,000 fans in the Hollywood Bowl. Notable attendees include Hideo Kojima, Koji Kondo (via pre-recorded video), Lorne Lanning, Yuji Naka, Marty O’Donnell, and Ted Price [4].

At the March 2006 Game Developers Conference, Video Game Pianist performed his piano arrangements of the Zelda, Monkey Island, Halo 2, Myst, and Advent Rising games at G.A.N.G; some of the composers for these games including Tim Larkin, Clint Bajakian, Marty O'Donnell, Jack Wall, and Tommy Tallarico were in attendance. During the GDC, Video Game Pianist also played songs from Final Fantasy at the Video Games Live sold-out concert in the San Jose Civic Auditorium.

On June 3rd, 2006 Video Game Pianist performed his Final Fantasy Medley, along with an encore presentation of Super Mario Brothers music (while blindfolded) after the concert had ended, at the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia, PA as part of the Video Games Live tour. [5] [6]

On September 1, 2006 Video Game Pianist again performed his Final Fantasy Medley and Super Mario Brothers music (blindfolded) at Toronto's Massey Hall as part of Video Games Live. In addition, Video Game Pianist performed the Game Boy music version of Tetris and much to the surprise of VGL Co-founder Tommy Tallarico, a version of Earthworm Jim at blazing speed.

On November 12 and 19, 2006 Video Game Pianist again performed his Final Fantasy Medley and Super Mario Brothers music (blindfolded) at Rio de Janeiro in Claro Hall and at São Paulo in Via Funchal as part of the Video Games Live in Brazil. In addition, Video Game Pianist performed the Super Mario World theme, and the Game Boy music version of Tetris. He did the same on the 25th of November, performing for 3000 fans at the Hammersmith Apollo, London.

[edit] Trivia

Video Game Pianist has been covered by Advanced Media Network, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nintendo Power, GAME Magazine, CUBE Magazine, Night Life Montreal, MTV, 1UP.com, GameSpot, and Slashdot.
He has three goals he wishes to accomplish: promote and elevate video game music's image, enhance the piano’s image so it can become a more mainstream instrument, and, since he believes a bridge exists between classical and video game music, his third goal is to popularize classical music [7].
When Video Game Pianist performed at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, on October 13, 2005, he was spurred by the audience to do 21 encores [8].
Video Game Pianist has been called a prodigy by the Phoenix New Times, River Front Times, and the East Bay Express.^{[citation needed]}