Game Music Festival – 2nd Edition – Guests, concerts, and program
The 2nd edition of Game Music Festival will be celebrated next week over two days, on Friday 18 & Saturday 19 October, 2019, at the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw (Poland).
Created and developed by GameMusic.pl portal, this second edition comes after a very successful and impressive first edition, attended last year by SoundTrackFest, where we were surprised by its quality and organization.
You can watch a video summary of out attendance to the 1st edition here:
The mission of the festival is a real declaration of intentions and a showcase of what we can find there. As the official website states:
“Our top priority remains to let you experience the highest artistic and acoustic quality of video game soundtracks played live. We aim to deliver the performances without any electronic amplification, contrary to what would happen in a sports arena or other objects. We really want the festival to be also an educational event, where fans can get acquainted with the process of making music for games. Furthermore, we plan each Game Music Festival to be of a forum for meetings of experts, sound designers, and composers working in the gaming industry.”
CONCERTS
The festival pivots around three main thematic concerts, which under the common name of “Symphony”, will deliver specially re-imagined whole and long concerts suites, respecting the quality, entity, and soul of the original music of the videogames they’re based on, being built from scratch for this edition of the festival. This is something that makes Game Music Festival different from other festivals, and it is delivered in a scale that we haven’t seen in any other place.
The Symphony of the Desert (18/10/2019 – 20:00-22:00h)
The first concert of this year’s Game Music Festival – The Symphony of the Desert – is based on the idea of contrast between three atmospheric titles: Journey, Abzu & The Banner Saga. The first two soundtracks are subtle and have an ethereal beauty, while the third one is full of piercing cold and raw in its form. The author of those pieces, which add lots of value to their respective games, is the acclaimed American composer Austin Wintory, who will be present at the festival. The Sound Factory Orchestra led by Robert Kurdybacha, will take listeners on a journey through endless deserts, vast sea depths, and snowy mountains.
The Symphony of the Colossus (19/10/2019 – 15:00-16:45h)
The second concert, The Symphony of the Colossus, is dedicated to the music of three timeless games: ICO, Shadow of the Colossus & The Last Guardian. Players remember these titles not only because of the bond with their protagonists and a minimalist narrative, but also thanks to their soundtracks full of monumental yet delicate melodies. The concert will reflect this approach by merging the creations of Japanese composers Michiru Oshima, Kow Otani & Takeshi Furukawa, performed by the Sound Factory Orchestra conducted by Robert Kurdybacha, with the presence of Kow Otani.
The Symphony of the Shadows (19/10/2019 – 20:00-22:00h)
This concert will be the grand finale of Game Music Festival 2019, with a synthesis of music accompanying two stealthy assassins, as well as an homage to the audio design of their missions – Ezio Aduditore from Assassin’s Creed II, together with Agent 47 from the Hitman series. The music to both games was composed by Jesper Kyd, who will be present at the concert, offering two powerful suites performed live by over 120 musicians of the full NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra with a choir. As a highlight, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the release of Assassin’s Creed II and the 20th of the first Hitman title.
Details and tickets for the concerts (normal and VIP options):
- 18/10/2019 – 20:00-22:00h – The Symphony of the Desert (47-169 PLN / 11-39 €)
- 19/10/2019 – 15:00-16:45h – The Symphony of the Colossus (47-169 PLN / 11-39 €)
- 19/10/2019 – 20:00-22:00h – The Symphony of the Shadows (103-249 PLN / 24-58 €)
- Special 2 day tickets (279-549 PLN / 65-127 €)
- Link to tickets: https://shops.ticketmasterpartners.com/game-music-festival
MASTERCLASS & WORKSHOP PROGRAM
The festival will also include an extensive masterclass/workshop program, which we can find below:
- 18/10/2019 – 15:00h – 15:45h – Press Conference
- 18/10/2019 – 16:00 – 17:30h – Masterclass with Gareth Cooker – ‘Musical Identity and Themes : An Exploration’. A talk that goes into some of the different ways one can give a game its musical identity, using several in-depth examples from the composer’s previous and current work, in completely different styles and genres. It also explores how and why giving a game a strong musical identity can help make the player feel closer to the world they are spending time in.
- 18/10/2019 – 17:45 – 18:30h – Prelection with Kow Otani
- 18/10/2019 – 22:00 – 23:00h – Meet & Greet session with Austin Wintory (VIP passes, VIP tickets)
- 19/10/2019 – 11:00 – 12:00h – Prelection with Marcin “Cedyń” Czartyński – ‘From recording zippers to a world-class studio. Bulletstorm post mortem’. Marcin “Cedyń” Czartyński of People Can Fly tells the story of an ambitious project with a need for ambitious sound design and how it led to building the probably first professional recording studio in European gamedev!
- 19/10/2019 – 12:15 – 13:45h – Masterclass with Austin Wintory – ‘From JOURNEY to ERICA: How interactive music works’. Composer Austin Wintory will look at examples of his work from games like JOURNEY, THE BANNER SAGA, ASSASSIN’S CREED SYNDICATE and ERICA to explore how the interactive musical systems work and how he approached writing the music.
- 19/10/2019 – 14:00 -15:00h – One to one with Jesper Kyd & David Bateson
- 19/10/2019 – 17:00 – 18:00h – Meet & Greet session with Kow Otani (VIP passes, VIP tickets)
- 19/10/2019 – 18:30 – 19:30h – Panel discussion – Jesper Kyd, Austin Wintory, Gareth Coker, Kow Otani, and Arkadiusz Reikowski
- 19/10/2019 – 22:00 – 23:00h – Meet & Greet session with Jesper Kyd and David Bateson (VIP passes, VIP tickets)
The admission is free of charge (unless events where otherwise stated), but registration is mandatory. After submitting the registration form, please wait for the confirmation. Attendees having a VIP pass or a standard festival pass receive the priority to participate.
Registration:
https://evenea.pl/event/gamemusicedupath/
Facebook Event for the festival:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2000616736901076/
More information about the festival:
http://soundtrackfest.com/en/tag/game-music-festival-en/
Official website:
