Well, I actually made it up to Toronto this weekend for my fifth Play concert. It was quite amazing and rivaled the premiere show in Chicago in terms of quality. Arnie Roth conducted again and the show took place at the Hummingbird Center in Toronto.
Thanks as always to Jason Michael Paul Productions for making this tour happen. Following this tour all year has been a dream come true for me!
Here is the guest list:
Nobuo Uematsu
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
Jeremy Soule
The creator of the game "Prey". His name escapes me at the moment.
Chris Tilton (from the game "Black").
Rony Barrak (percussionist)
Here is the set list (which may be slightly out of order)
1. Play theme
2. Liberi Fatali
3. Mario Medley
4. Shenmue
5. Aeris' Theme
6. Sonic Medley
7. A surprise performance of Sega's "Daytona USA" by Mr. Mitsuyoshi.
He played piano and sang English vocals. This was awesome and his performance stole the show. An unforgetable moment.
After that Mitsuyoshi threw a few stuffed Sonic plush dolls into the crowd.
8. Theme from "Black". I liked this a lot.
9. Metal Gear Solid Theme.
10. Castlevania Medley
This medley had two parts, the first part was basically the title track from the Dracula New Classic CD, the arrangement was exactly the same.
The second I believe was from Curse of Darkness, it was quite good, and featured a Keyboard for the organ and slamming drums. I felt it was a good mix old and new Castlevania.
11. Kingdom Hearts
Intermission
12. Elder Scrolls III Suite
13. Theme from Prey.
14. Swing de Chocobo
15. Chrono Trigger/Cross
16. World of Warcraft Suite
17. Silent Hill 2 Theme of Laura So far, I feel no one has matched Akira Yamaoka's performance of this in Chicago. The various guitarists for the orchestras have been outstanding, but seeing Mr. Yamaoka do it is more electrifying.
18. Halo Suite
19. Zelda
20. One Winged Angel
21. Encore: Blue Dragon Theme
There was a pre show discussion on game music hosted by the guild of Canadian film composers. Basically the topic was the growing worldwide popularity of game music and how newer games were similar to movies.
It was pretty cool. In attendance were:
1. Paul Hoffert (guild of Canadian Film Composers Chairperson)
2. David Logan (Composer for pitfall 3D, X-Men Mutant Academy).
3. Simon Pressey (audio director for Ubisoft Montreal)
Mr. Hoffert also stated he is writing a book on how to compose music for games.
After the show was the meet and greet event with the composers.
I felt lucky for having gotten a combined total of over forty items signed at previous Play concerts.
I had drawn a litlle SD style picture of Mr. Uematsu which I was very happy to get autographed by him. Here it is:
Pictures of the Hummingbird Centre soon!
