Halo Theme at Video Games Live

Not sure which performance date this was from, but enjoy the Halo theme performed by the Video Games Live concert orchestra.

 

Piano Squall's Final Fantasy Battle Medley

Here's another great Piano Squall piece, a 10 minute long clip featuring all of your favorite battle themes from the various Final Fantasy's. Piano Squall is simple fantastic!

Xenogears June Mermaid on Piano

Omg - you have no idea how much I love this song. NOO idea. I was a complete nut about Xenogears, and this music still gives me chills. Enjoy!

Xenogears Medley on Piano

It's really hard to find Xenogears music on instrumentation. I'm not entirely sure why - Mitsuda is an incredible composer. I was glad to find this Xenogears medley done by Kishino.

Say Hello to Piano Squall

You might have seen a cosplay Squall at conventions before. What you might not have experienced is the pure passion and energy this man has at the piano. Here's a sampling of his piano and piano renditions of Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, and Xenogears.

Wonder how he got started? It's simple: from the Youtube comments:

Well, for what it's worth - it wasn't really a gimmick... He was just a Squall cosplayer at cons, until some of my friends found out he played piano really well and had him play at a piano we found at BAAF 03 in the Mariott Marquis... and some people from AnimeNEXT overheard and invited him to play there, very informally... and so on and so forth. He wore his Squall cosplay as always and people just started knowing him as "Piano Squall,"

 

Forever Rachel on Piano

I haven't actually seen this done in an orchestral setting, but Forever Rachel from Final Fantasy 6 is one of my absolute favorite pieces of all time.

Shadow of the Colossus as performed by Eminence Orchestra

I typically try to stay on top of all of the video game music performance groups, but I sadly haven't heard of Eminence - until now. This Australian based orchestra had their debut concert back in 2004, with their A Night in Fantasis concert. Their mission is to increase interest in classical music through a medium that many younger folk can relate to - video game music.

From their site:

"The aim of this new-wave contemporary Orchestra is to inject something bold, dynamic and fresh, into something that’s slowly losing its general appeal.

We wish to challenge ideas of what orchestral music is all about, by aligning it to something familiar to younger audiences. We want young people to really “hear” orchestral music. We believe in the strength of this music and that younger people will really connect with it.

Classical music must not be left to languish in dusty corners or to be appreciated only by an older demographic. It needs to find a new face and be aggressively showcased into expanded genres and permutations in order to capture a larger audience. This said we do not want to limit our audience to young people, only to encourage them to join in as well as to expand the audience.

We feel passionately that young people must move away from TVs and Computers and get out and listen to ‘live’ music. This music can be a catalyst for younger people to explore symphonic music in more depth and appreciate it better.

This is not to devalue Bach and Beethoven, but take the best from the past, build on it and position it in a contemporary setting. This is the Silverchair of Classical!

Like the Beatles, creating musical history is about breaking new ground, doing what hasn’t been done before. "