Aidan Carney, music and arts director and principal conductor, leads Fredonia’s Video Game Orchestra through a rehearsal for the Oct. 15 concert.
The music from games created by a giant of the video game industry will be performed in concert at SUNY Fredonia in October.
The Video Game Orchestra, Fredonia’s only student-led large ensemble, will present “The Music of Nintendo,” on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m., in Harry A. King Concert Hall.
Admission for “The Music of Nintendo” is free for students, while the price for the general public is $5.
Tickets are available online 24/7. Tickets may also be purchased on Monday, Wednesday or Friday by phone at (716) 673-3501 or in person at the Fredonia Ticket Office in the Williams Center during regular hours of 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.
“For many people, their introduction to symphonic music came through video games,” said Aidan Carney, a junior Music Education major from Lancaster, NY, who is the music and arts director of the Media Music Collective, and principal conductor for the VGO.
Nintendo is a Japanese video game company that rose to prominence in the 1980s with seminal games like “Donkey Kong” (1981) and “Super Mario Bros.” (1985). Carney said the VGO has received many requests from students for a concert featuring music from Nintendo games.
“Nintendo was one of the first companies to include music in video games, so it’s only right to pay homage to them,” Carney said.
The Oct. 15 concert is designed to take audiences on a “nostalgic symphonic journey” through classics like “Super Mario,” “The Legend of Zelda” and many more. It will open with “Jump Up, Superstar!” and run through a half-dozen popular pieces before closing with “Super Mario Galaxy: Symphonic Suite.”
The program will include performances by vocal soloists and the Video Game Orchestra Chorus under Josephine Burleigh, choir director.
The Video Game Orchestra is an ensemble of the Media Music Collective, a Student Association organization, which also houses the Fredonia Pops! Orchestra. Alexandria Schuck is the executive director and Jessica Barnett-Moseley is the faculty advisor.
Founded in 2022 by Scott Stout (’24 Music Education) for the purpose of “improving and promoting video game music in the Western New York area and beyond,” the VGO is some 60 members strong. It is a non-curricular ensemble that includes both music majors and non-music majors from virtually all academic areas.
“Our musicians have a wide range of academic backgrounds,” Carney said. “You may have a clarinet Performance major right next to a Business major, but by the end of a rehearsal everyone sounds awesome.”
Molly Gibson, a senior Music Education major from Verplanck, NY, is the VGO’s assistant director of the orchestra. She said the group takes pride in expanding the impact of symphonic music on the campus and beyond.
“We appreciate music so much,” Gibson said. “We’re trying to give others the opportunity to enjoy music at Fredonia. The Video Game Orchestra might be someone’s first experience with symphonic music, but I hope they’ll come back to see some other ensembles we have here at Fredonia.”
