Game Music Concert Sells out LMU Grand Aula
– 2 min read
With a game concert full of strategy titles, German games and classics, amateur emsemble MünchenKlang successfully filled one of Munich's most prestigious venues. The concert was curated by Yannick Süß, game composer for THQ Nordic, and moderated by BR's Henrik Oerding.
The Game Music - Live in Konzert by MünchenKlang couldn't have found a more prestigious location to fill with the soundtracks of many of the most successful games. In the Grand Aula of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), historical temporary venue of the Bavarian State Opera after the National Theatre was destroyed in WW2, the amateur emsemble composed of a full orchestra and chorus played to a capacity-filled room on March 23: With 726 listeners, the Aula and its gallery were sold out.
Connecting Classics Fans and Gamers
The event was lead and conducted by Thomas Hefele and curated by game composer Yannick Süß, both part of MünchenKlang. Moderating between the pieces was Henrik Oerding of the BR Bayerischer Rundfunks gaming music podcast Levels & Soundtracks. Oerding skilfully led the very age-diverse audience through the combination of classical concert and gaming contexts, holding the attention of the about one third of listeners that had never played a game as well as keeping the rituals of classical music concerts lighthearted and funny for the younger audience.
Clever Curation Highlights GSA Titles
The curation of titles and games could not have been more German in its scope - although that is by no means meant pejoratively. From the twelve games and 15 pieces present, four games and five pieces were from the GSA region: two tracks from Anno 1404 and one out of Anno 1800 from Ubisoft Mainz, a three-part suite from King Art's The Dwarves and a concert suite from THQ Nordic published Knights of Honor II: Sovereign, the latter composed by Süß himself. Apart from the German-produced titles, a whopping six games and eight pieces, amounting to half the concert, were from strategy and tactics games, genres that are very successful in the GSA region. Civilization VI, Victoria 3 and the German and Austrian productions mentioned above were fitting choices, both by game and music genre, with their chorals and orchestral grandeur capturing the attention of even the classical music crowd. At the same time, the not often used soundtracks - even Civilization VI was represented not by the intro track, but by the suites of Georgia and Germany - kept it fresh for avid enjoyers of game music.
The second part of the concert, then, introduced the classical crowd to - equally classical, from a gaming perspective - evergreens, and gave the gaming audience their fandom fix. World of Warcraft, Tetris, Abzu, the climaxing moment of Skyrim's Dragonborn and a grand finale with the most iconic tracks from Final Fantasy VIII and VII each brought the crowd to almost 20 minute long ovations.
Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.
Written by
Pascal Wagner is Chief of Relations of GamesMarket and Senior Editor specialised in indie studios, politics, funding and academic coverage.
