hey all, a friend sent me this link today about a live video games symphony happening tommorow night at Massey Hall. Looks pretty interesting tho i wonder if tix are still available.. if so i'm gonna go and try and check it out

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Video Games Live September 1, 2006 7:00 PM Massey Hall $59.50 - $39.50 Special reserve holds for FriendsFirst members are available. Please call the Box Office at 416-872-4255. House of Blues Concerts presents Video Games Live teams up with Fan Expo to bring you an immersive concert event featuring music from the most popular video games. If you or someone you know is into video games you won't want to miss this highly acclaimed one-of-a-kind concert experience. Or maybe you are looking for something cultural that the whole family will enjoy? Top orchestras & choirs perform along with exclusive video footage, synchronized lighting, performers and unique interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience. Even if you have never played a video game you've never seen an orchestral performance quite like this. Come early! Festival events include a costume contest, game competitions, meet & greet with top game composers/designers and more! Mario, Zelda, Halo, Final Fantasy, Warcraft, Metal Gear Solid, Myst, Castlevania, Kingdom Hearts, Medal of Honor, Sonic, Tron, God of War, Advent Rising, Beyond Good & Evil, EverQuest II, Classic Arcade Medley and more!

http://www.masseyhall.com/eventInfo...earMonth=2006,9

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Get yourself in the game Symphonies and choirs will showcase content from classic video games Shows hope to attract wider audience than hard-core gamers Aug. 31, 2006. 05:29 AM RAJU MUDHAR ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER Consider it a new spin on virtual reality. Tomorrow night's performance of Video Games Live at Massey Hall is an attempt to do some very unlikely things — not the least of which is to get the gamers off the couch and into a theatre. Those who manage to tear themselves away from their consoles will find an interactive, multimedia performance that features a symphony and choir performing the greatest bits and hits of some of the world's most famous video games. But you don't have to be a game junkie to enjoy it. Despite the power of a $10 billion industry and being the entertainment avenue of choice for legions of young people, there are many people who believe that video games don't qualify as art. The most common argument against them is that there is no singular, unifying experience in playing a game. Possibly in reaction to that point of view, there is a trend afoot to highlighting the components of video games and presenting them in more traditional art settings. "The one really important thing to know is that we have designed this show with the non-video game player in mind," says Tommy Tallarico, creator/host/video game music maker and personality. "You do not have to know anything about video games or actually like them, to come out and be blown away. "We know the gamers love it, and there are so many inside jokes and things onscreen that the gamers will appreciate, but it's also important that this is a show for the whole family, and particular the mother or girlfriend who's dragged to it. "The very first segment is an eight-minute classic arcade medley that starts at Pong in 1972 and ends in 1988 with Tetris. It has every thing in between, stuff like Donkey Kong, Dragons Lair, Gauntlet and Elevator Action. Everybody knows something in that." Tallarico — who grew up in St. Catharines and is best known for hosting video game shows Electronic Playground and Reviews on the Run — has been a video game composer for more than 15 years. He is credited with using a guitar for the first time on a video game soundtrack. At the time, synthesizers were the instrument of choice. Tallarico's show isn't the only one celebrating the popularity of video games. On Sept. 30th, Play! A Video Game Symphony is coming to the Hummingbird Centre. Both shows have licensed music from several different video games, and both are being performed by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra while images of the actual games are broadcast above the stage. While taking video games out of the home and into concert halls may seem unusual, it's proof of how relevant gamer culture is, particularly from an artistic standpoint. Earlier this summer, there was a Microsoft-sponsored show also called Play (no relation to the symphonic version), which placed the component graphics used in creating games on gallery walls. The difference in the two upcoming shows is that they deconstruct the games to highlight the music. "(Video games) are definitely art," says Jason Michael Paul, producer of the musical Play!, ... just the graphic components alone. But when you consider the sum that is created, that's obvious to me ... I've actually seen people cry at our show, believe it or not." He also adds that this supposedly lowbrow source of fun also happens to be a hit with the highbrow musicians. "We've performed this all over the U.S. with the renowned symphonies like the L.A. Philharmonic, and it's the musicians who are always saying afterward, `come back next year. We loved doing this show,'" Paul says. Actually, if there is a difference in these shows, it's that Play! is intended to highlight the symphony and the music (it is conducted by Grammy Award-winning artist Arnie Roth), whereas Tallarico's Video Games Live does the same but aims to have a little more fun, and — even in a theatre — still be interactive. "I'm a composer, I love Beethoven," Tallarico says. "He's my guy. But if I go to a Beethoven concert, me who loves him, I sometimes get a little bored. "So I don't want my video games presented like that, as cool as it is. I want to bring in all of the things that make video games so incredible and so desirable for a generation of people, and it's the visuals, it's the storylines, the interactivity and this incredible music." Tallarico has a couple of different elements to get the audience involved. There's a Space Invaders segment where he picks somebody from the audience and has them play the game on the giant screen with the chance to win some money. But the twist is that the symphony plays along live to the game, and as anybody who's played the classic game know, as the Invaders move closer to the bottom of the screen, the music speeds up. There also a segment that celebrates the fact that it's the 25th anniversary of the iconic, groundbreaking game Frogger. Of course, the attempt to take games out of their traditional setting may also have the reverse effect: The shows are a chance for game players to get out of the house and have the cultural experience of a night at the symphony. But for Tallarico, tomorrow night's show has even greater significance than spreading the gospel of his beloved medium. "I've got about 40 or 50 family members, including my mom, coming up to Toronto for the show, so it better be good or else I'll never hear the end of it."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...ol=969483202845

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