| Thomas Böcker | |
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Thomas Böcker in 2010 |
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| Born | October 8, 1977 Dohna, Saxony, Germany |
| Occupation | Producer |
| Years active | 1999—Present |
Thomas Böcker (born October 8, 1977) is an award winning German producer notable for his innovative works on numerous orchestral concerts, game scores, and album releases.[1][2] He is most known for his work on the annual Symphonic Game Music Concerts initiated in 2003, historical for being the longest running and the first of their kind outside of Japan.[3][4][5]
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Thomas Böcker spent his childhood growing up in the small mountain town of Lauenstein. Coming from a family of teachers, he developed an appreciation for Classical music from a young age and regularly attended symphonic concerts.[6] Like many others in Europe, he grew up playing the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga computers. Soon enough, he developed a passion for video game music and became especially fond of Chris Huelsbeck’s works on the Turrican series.[7] Boecker’s love for both video game music and Classical artists would soon come together, as he realised the potential for scores and concerts to feature orchestral game music.[8]
In 2003, Thomas Böcker produced the opening ceremony of the Leipzig Games Convention with the First Symphonic Game Music Concert. The event at the sold-out Gewandhaus concert hall was the first of its kind outside of Japan and received ten minutes of standing ovations.[9] His annual follow-up concerts gained even more popular and critical appraise with their numerous innovations, expansive programs, refined performances, and special guest appearances. In conjunction with this work, he brought orchestral game music around the world with leading roles on the highly successful concert tours PLAY! A Video Game Symphony and Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy.[10] He also inspired the use of game music for educational purposes, through creating the series of school concerts Heroes of our Imagination in 2006, with Super Mario Galaxy – A Musical Adventure being its latest instalment.[11]
Thomas Böcker has since developed a long-standing relationship with the WDR Radio Orchestra in Cologne. This culminated in the best-selling concert performances Symphonic Shades – Huelsbeck in Concert (2008), Symphonic Fantasies – music from Square Enix (2009), Symphonic Legends - music from Nintendo (2010) and Symphonic Odysseys - Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu (2011) at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.[12][13][14][15] As a world's first, Böcker’s productions have been broadcast live to radio listeners worldwide by the WDR and have even been enjoyed internationally through live video streams.[16][17]
In 2012, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra will perform two Symphonic Fantasies concerts at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert hall in Tokyo, Japan, produced by Thomas Böcker.
Beyond game music concerts, Thomas Böcker is the creative mind behind the Merregnon Trilogy, a series of albums that tell a fantasy story through music.[18] With their legendary composers, rich performances, and elaborate presentation, these albums have proved influential in East and West alike. Boecker has also accepted executive roles on numerous other album productions, including the Amiga’s Immortal series,[19] Masashi Hamauzu’s Vielen Dank[20] and Yoko Shimomura’s drammatica.[21] He has also supervised the studio recordings of the concerts Distant Worlds and Distant Worlds II.[22]
Thomas Böcker has been extensively involved in studio recordings of game music scores. He has attended the recording sessions of numerous Eastern and Western game scores through his long-standing collaboration with the FILMharmonic Orchestra Prague. In addition, his own artists at Merregnon Studios have been commissioned to compose and arrange for titles such as THQ’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Namco Bandai’s Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record U.C. 0081, and Sega’s World Club Championship Football.[23]
The producer currently represents Merregnon Studios' award winning composer and arranger Jonne Valtonen on a range of score and concert productions.