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Back to the Future: Two Generations of Film and Video Game Composers

Presented by Berklee College of Music at Symphony Hall

April 1, 2011

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The Berklee College of Music Film Scoring Department presents an evening of music from popular movies and video games, Back to the Future: Two Generations of Film and Video Game Composers. Familiar scores from Forrest Gump, Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, and Back to the Future, and games Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and AFRIKA will be performed by the 100-piece Video Game Orchestra, directed by Shota Nakama and conducted by Yohei Sato.

Also appearing will be the Rhythm of the Universe world-pop music group, also 100-members strong, and special guest conductors including Alan Silvestri, a two-time Oscar nominee and a Grammy winner. Back to the Future: Two Generations of Film and Video Game Composers takes place at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, on Friday, April 1, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.50 - $49.50 and can be purchased at the Symphony Hall box office, or by calling 888-266-1200, or at www.bso.org.

Silvestri, a Berklee alumnus, received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Original Music Score for Forrest Gump and one for Best Original Song for "Believe," on The Polar Express soundtrack. He won a Grammy with “Believe” for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Additional guest conductors and composers will be world-renowned video game composer of Chrono Trigger Yasunori Mitsuda; G.A.N.G. Award-winning video game composer Wataru Hokoyama, whose credits include AFRIKA and Resident Evil; Emmy winner Daniel Carlin, chair of Berklee's Film Scoring Department; and Golden Knight winner and Berklee alumnus Lucas Vidal. Besides Silvestri’s, works from a number of other Berklee-affiliated composers are featured in the program: Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings), Georges Delerue (Steel Magnolias), and Alf Clausen (The Simpsons), among them. Video Game Orchestra (VGO) is a professional group that performs contemporary arrangements of video game music with an orchestra, choir, and rock band. The group was formed in 2008 by Berklee alumnus Shota Nakama. Since then, VGO has had major success breaking into the music scene with its rockestral video game music. Most recently, VGO, along with Nobuo Uematsu, was featured as the main musical act at PAX East & Anime Boston, where they drew a fire-code breaking audience of over 7,000 at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center.

Rhythm of the Universe (ROTU), founded in 2010 by Emir Cerman at Berklee, is comprised of Berklee musicians from 90 countries. The organization promotes collaboration between people of many cultures who might otherwise be separated by political, religious, or geographical barriers. Berklee alumnus Simone Scazzocchio is the group’s conductor.