Australia's world renowned Eminence Symphony Orchestra is staging another concert in its popular "A Night in Fantasia" series. The concerts feature music from Japanese anime and video games.
The latest concert will be held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Saturday September 26.
Featuring a full Symphony Orchestra, "mind blowing" choir and special guest performers from Japan and the US, Eminence promise "the biggest, boldest and best" concert in the "Fantasia" series yet.
Music will be performed from games like Afrika, Ace Combat V, Darksiders: Wrath of War, Dragon Age: Origins, Metal Gear Solid, Prince of Persia, Red Alert 3, Shadow of the Colossus, as well as anime titles like Astro Boy, Totora, Laputa, Princess Monoke, Deathnote and Steamboy. Many of the arrangements have been rewritten by the original composers.
"We are really looking forward to presenting A Night in Fantasia 2009 as it’s going to be such a huge event, featuring so many wonderful pieces of music, musicians, world class composers and other special guests," says Hiroaki Yura, founder and director of Eminence.
"Not only will fans be blown away by the musical extravaganza of A Night in Fantasia 2009, they will also love the impressive array of images that will be shown on the big screen. We’re not holding back."
Eminence is also celebrating an astonishing milestone, with their performance of Final Fantasy VII's "One-Winged Angel" achieving more than three million viewers on YouTube. The 2005 performance at the Sydney Town Hall is now YouTube's most watched live symphonic concert.
“This sort of following shows us the impact that our music and moreover, our unique take on innovation within the classical genre is having around the world,” says Hiroaki Yura.
“There’s no other video game music track to have topped three million views in YouTube, so we’re very proud to see this worldwide level of support from our fans."
Yura says that Eminence’s goal is to challenge the image of symphonic music by aligning it with things that are more familiar to younger audiences, such as video games.