| Video Game Orchestra | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | VGO |
| Formation | June 2008 |
| Official languages | English |
| Founder | Shota Nakama |
Video Game Orchestra (widely known as VGO) is an orchestra that performs contemporary arrangements of video game music with an orchestra, choir, and rock band. The orchestra consists of the regional and international award-winning musicians from over 20 countries. This multi-cultural diversity background and its unique format create the unique sonic signature of VGO.
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Video Game Orchestra was founded by Shota Nakama, a graduate from Berklee College of Music, in June 2008. Since then they have been actively performing around the Boston area.
VGO's debut concert, A Night of Symphonic Video Game Music, was held at Gordon Chapel in Old South Church in Boston on July 2, 2008. The orchestra, or rather a small ensemble of 28 musicians, performed the music from popular titles such as Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Metal Gear Solid, and etc.
VGO's second concert was held at Church of the Covenant of Boston on November 2, 2008. The group became much larger than before with the addition of a choir and rock band.
[1] VGO's third concert was its major breakthrough. This sold out concert was held at Berklee Performance Center on March 5, 2009 and was the first concert of its kind in the history of Berklee College of Music. It received a heave promotion and VGO was featured on NECN News,[2] Boston Globe,[3] and numerous other papers, radio stations, and websites around the world. Four popular American video game composers attended the concerts as the guests. Jack Wall, the former conductor/musical director of Video Games Live conducted his own composition from the massive game franchise, Myst as well as Advent Rising by his former colleague Tommy Tallarico. One of the composers from the God of War series, Gerard K. Marino, contributed his heavy metal arrangement of The End Begins (To Rock) from God of War 2. The orchestra also featured compositions from Brothers in Arms by Dancun Watt and Ceaser IV by Keith Zizza. Both are New England based game composers.
This concert was hosted by Independent Game Conference East 2009 as its closing event and was held at Fenway Center in Boston, May 7, 2009. This concert featured the VGO chamber group for the first time in a very intimate acoustic setting.[4]
VGO was invited to Anime Boston 2009 as the opening act for the main musical guest, Kalafina and Yuki Kajiura. The concert was held at Hynes Convention Center Auditorium on May 23, 2009. VGO featured its chamber group along with its rock band. To honor the presence of Yuki Kajiura, for the first time they included an Anime song from Tsubasa Chronicle that Kajiura composed in their set list. VGO's performance was highly acclaimed and eventually Anime Boston brought them back to the stage again in 2010.[5]
VGO had a special appearance at the end of the Music for Video Games workshop at Berklee College of Music. Norihiko Hibino, a composer from the Metal Gear Solid franchise, attended the concert.
The concert entitled ~Awakening~ was a return of VGO full group, which was absent for 9 months, to Berklee Performance Center. The concert took a place on December 5, 2009 and this time the group featured an accomplished film/game composer, Wataru Hokoyama.
During PAX East 2010 at Hynes Convention Center in March 2010, VGO was featured as one of seven musical guests.[6]
VGO returned for Anime Boston 2010 at Hynes Convention Center on April 2, 2010, this time with its full group unlike the previous year. The convention guest of honor, Nobuo Uematsu, had a surprise appearance on One Winged Angel during the encore.[7]