2 mars 2005
Video game concerts draw packed crowds
'Final Fantasy' music tours symphony halls
Rosemont Illinois

It was a scene many orchestras would envy at a time when classical groups continue to struggle financially, and when some are branching out to try new formats as a means for survival.

Liam Conlon doesn't fit the profile of your typical classical concertgoer. But when the high school freshman recently discovered that a show featuring music from the computer game "Final Fantasy" would be playing near his suburban Chicago home, he could hardly believe it.

He and a friend snapped up a pair of fifth-row tickets to the Rosemont Theatre concert and joined the cheering, sellout crowd of nearly 4,500 that turned out to see the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra play. Above the stage, images from the game — a theatrical and multi-chaptered quest to save the world — played on giant video screens.

The response — including several standing ovations — was much the same last year when the Los Angeles Philharmonic played the music at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Read full article b Martha Irvine at MSNBC