Video Games Inspire a Generation of Classical Music Fans

After graduating from the Osaka College of Music in 1988, Yoko Shimomura was torn between career paths. Classically trained since the age of 3 and raised in a family of piano players, Shimomura had studied to become a piano teacher. But when she wasn’t studying or playing the piano, Shimomura was popping coins at her local arcade or stomping on Goombas in Super Mario Bros.

It was Koji Kondo’s infectious melodies in the original Super Mario Bros. that first piqued Shimomura’s interest in video game music. Not long after, Koichi Sugiyama’s classical score for the RPG Dragon Quest inspired her to marry her love for video games and classical music. When an opportunity to join the sound team at game studio Capcom popped up, Shimomura went for it, much to her parents’ dismay. “Perhaps they weren’t sure of what I was doing until now,” Shimomura tells WIRED over email. “Maybe even now!”

Video game music wasn’t well respected in the ’80s, but fast-forward to today and Shimomura is one of the most well-respected video game composers in the world. Her music, which has popped up in everything from Dizzee Rascal and Janet Jackson tracks to viral internet memes (Guile’s theme really does go with everything) and, most recently, the opening ceremony at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has captured the hearts of millions across the globe. And while Shimomura’s scores for Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy XV transcend genres, her passion for classical music has never faltered.

It’s this passion, along with Shimomura’s knack for captivating audiences, that led to her scoring Merregnon: Land of Silence, a symphonic fairytale that sets her trademark sound (performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra) to an original story by the German children’s author Frauke Angel, all of which is brought to life with beautiful Ghibli-like illustrations.

Its producer, Thomas Bocker, created Land of Silence to introduce families and younger audiences to the wonders of orchestral music, a vision shared by both Shimomura and the executive director of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Stefan Forsberg, who has great belief in Shimomura’s compositional prowess.

“Video game music is now an important part of society and a part of the daily lives of so many people around the world,” Forsberg says. “If there’s a use for us as a symphony orchestra to share the experience of what we do in our homes—our classical concert halls—and show people what can be done with these beautiful instruments with hundreds of years of tradition, I think that’s of great value to new audiences.”

This isn’t the first work intended to introduce young audiences to orchestral music. Land of Silence follows in the footsteps of others, including Sergei Prokofiev’s 1936 classic Peter and the Wolf, but its arrival in 2021 is certainly timely. To say the Covid-19 pandemic has been challenging for the music industry might be the understatement of the century. Even now, as we trudge the long road to recovery, mounting costs have forced many venues to permanently close, and forced many musicians out of the industry. Some who could afford the cost of livestreaming equipment have adapted by hosting virtual performances, but many more remain reliant on getting butts in seats.

This poses particular challenges for attendance at classical concerts. It’s no secret that such concerts attract older patrons. About 62 percent of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s audience is 55 or over, according to The New York Times, and the dangers of contracting Covid increase with age. It’s no surprise that a recent survey by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the UK found that only 26 percent of people feel comfortable returning to live events. Land of Silence could be a welcome hand for struggling concert halls.