Video Game Orchestra

Video Game Orchestra (VGO)
Video Game Orchestra Logo
Background information
Origin	Boston, United States
Genres	video game music, Progressive metal, progressive rock, symphonic rock, neo-classical metal, classical music, acoustic
Years active	2008–present
Associated acts	Distant Worlds, Video Games Live, The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses
Website	VGO-Online.com

Video Game Orchestra (VGO) is a Boston-based project that performs its own "rockestral" arrangements of video game music with a rock band, orchestra and choir. The project was created by Shota Nakama, an Okinawan-born producer who graduated from Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory. Comparative to the other existing major video game concert acts, which mostly focus on the pure orchestral performances, the rock band element is the core essence of the VGO. Their concerts are presented as a rock show with entertaining audience engagement, improvised solos and 80's like show tricks on stage.

Video Game Orchestra was founded by Shota Nakama, a graduate from Berklee College of Music, in May 2008.

VGO became comprised by a group of Boston based musicians, both young and established talents from local communities, as well as talents from around the world. Nakama's own intentions with the group was to deliver something different and fresh to the worlds of both classical music and video games, and created an orchestra with a full rock band integrated to allow for a larger sound and more freedom creatively for both the performers and the arrangements, though the rock band would not make its debut until the second concert.

VGO's debut concert, A Night of Symphonic Video Game Music, was held at Gordon Chapel in Old South Church in Boston on July 2, 2008. The orchestra, or rather a small ensemble of 28 musicians, performed the music from popular titles such as Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, and Metal Gear Solid. Their second concert was held at Church of the Covenant of Boston on November 2, 2008, which also saw the addition of a choir.

VGO's concert on March 5 at the Berklee Performance Center was sold out and became a landmark for Berklee College of Music by being the very first concert of its kind that the school participated in. In attendance were four of America's most prolific video game composers, Jack Wall, Gerard Marino, Duncan Watt, and Keith Zizza with Wall conducting his own compositions with the VGO. It received heavy promotion and the orchestra was featured on NECN News, Boston Globe, and numerous other papers, radio stations, and websites around the world.