Symphonic Game Music Concerts
[1][2][3] They are produced by Thomas Böcker[4] and performed by various orchestras conducted by Andy Brick (2003–2007),[5] Arnie Roth (2008, 2009 and 2011),[6] Niklas Willén (2010, 2012)[7] and Eckehard Stier (from 2012).
The Leipzig Trade Fair promoted GC in Concert, while Böcker acted as creative director and producer.
This involved creating a concert programme and obtaining the permission of individual publishers to perform music from their game releases.
The focus of the first concert was on music from publishers that had been recorded previously with live orchestras, which reduced the development phase to four months, starting in mid-April 2003.
[2][9][15] In their role as official opening ceremonies of the GC – Games Convention, they also included various speeches by industry representatives and politicians such as Wolfgang Tiefensee.
[16] In addition, numerous composers took part, including Nobuo Uematsu, Yuzo Koshiro, Chris Hülsbeck, Rob Hubbard and Allister Brimble.
[17][18] Following an invitation by Thomas Böcker, Winfried Fechner, the manager of the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln, attended the fifth GC in Concert in Leipzig in the hope of introducing a new genre of music to his own ensemble.
[19] Impressed by the response of the audience there, he saw an opportunity to inspire young people with orchestral music and entered into a collaboration with Böcker's Merregnon Studios, which soon led to the CD release drammatica -The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura-, the first in-house concert including video game music titled PROMS That's Sound, that's Rhythm and, a little later, Symphonic Shades – Hülsbeck in Concert.
[20][21] In late 2007, Thomas Böcker announced his role as producer of Symphonic Shades, two concerts held on 23 August 2008 dedicated to the music of German composer Chris Hülsbeck.
[22] The premiere performance with the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln at the Funkhaus Wallrafplatz was the first game music concert to be broadcast live on the radio, WDR4.
The event featured music from Japanese game developer Nintendo, with titles such as Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Metroid, F-Zero and The Legend of Zelda being performed.
[11] The Final Symphony programme then went on a world tour with performances in Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, the USA, New Zealand, China, Austria, Australia and Poland.
[45] In addition to the events in Germany, the UK and Japan, Final Symphony II was also presented in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
[51] In September 2023, Thomas Böcker produced another concert film, again for Bethesda Softworks, for the action role-playing game Starfield, which had just been released at the time.
