Live music with cutting-edge video screen visuals from Myst, Tron, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Halo, Sonic, Super Mario Bros., and Civilization IV. Giant screens in-house and on the lawn.

Ticket Scale	Boxes	Front Orch	Rear Orch	Loge	Lawn
B	$48	48	38	32	20

Dress up as your favorite video game character! Join us for a pre-show costume contest.


The NSO’s first program featuring video game music (at Wolf Trap in 2006) was a symphonic version of the 1933 sci-fi classic When Worlds Collide. We had no idea how it would go or who, if anyone, would be in the audience. It turned out, (aside from Leonard Nimoy narrating The Planets), to be the runaway hit of summer. Video Games Live! was an even bigger hit at the Kennedy Center in June 2007. Our wonderful NSO musicians approached the rehearsal with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension and were bemused when each piece announced from the stage was received with an ever greater tidal wave of applause and shouts. But change comes to all things —even classical musicians. Now among the NSO of 2009 you find bloggers, gamers, and rabid Facebook fanatics (like myself). In three years technology and the modern orchestra have gone from a blind date to being fast friends. And we’re building bridges between young and old, technophile and techno phobic, classical forms and contemporary idioms, from icebox to Xbox.

What is happening here tonight is, as Mr. Spock would say, “fascinating.” We not only have millions of young people across the country playing these new games, but also listening to some very crafty orchestral music. Long gone are the electronic bleeps and blops of Frogger and Donkey Kong—they have been replaced with sophisticated and complex scores that are deeply interwoven into the narrative of the game. Much as the pairing of a great team—such as Hitchcock and Herrmann or Spielberg and Williams—forever changed how we watch and listen to movies, these composers have changed how we experience the customized, interactive, and ever changing ‘motion pictures’ of 2009.

When people talk about the “graying of the concert audience,” I get a little hot under my tux collar. Yes, a lot of people who also enjoy a rip-roaring episode of Murder She Wrote do like an equally rip and roaring rendition of a Tchaikovsky symphony. But there is a new audience out there who will soon be our audience of tomorrow. My passion for the (there he goes again) original Star Trek did not prevent me from falling in love with Stravinsky. Your little Guitar Hero addict may well grow up to be tomorrow’s Leonard Bernstein.

This new, more symphonic version of the gaming craze is a strong indicator of how important the sounds of people playing music for other people (on acoustic instruments thank you very much) is part of our human hard wiring. Remove the soundtrack from life and what are you left with? Imagine silent skipping Munchkins or Elliot and his alien friend ET defying gravity to the sound of a squeaky bike and freeway traffic.

What is old becomes new, and what is new is what keeps you young. There will always be a future for orchestral music so long as we continue to grow and adapt—which reminds me, I have to order my copy of After Worlds Collide from Amazon. Check out our NSO @ Wolf Trap Facebook page for more articles, video postings, and updates.

NSO @ Wolf Trap Festival Conductor Emil de Cou

Songs/excerpts from show:
Classic Arcade
Metal Gear Solid
God of War
Space Invaders
Civilization IV
Final Fantasy Piano Solo
Metroid
Zelda
Kingdom Hearts
Warcraft
Mario
Mario Piano Solo
Chrono Cross/Chrono Trigger
Guitar Hero “Sweet Emotion”
Atlas from Halo 3
Halo Suite & Halo 3
One Winged Angel
Castlevania Rock

Autographs that are available after the show!