Yura spoke of Eminence's goals and successes, including his desire to bring an appreciation of orchestral music to younger people. He talked us through clips of Eminence performances, including their collaborations with some legends of the videogame industry. Also present was composer Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy XII), who through Yura's translations spoke about his work and the challenges facing a videogames composer (even revealing that he was once asked to compose a videogame score in under two hours!).
After the presentation, we were so impressed with Eminence that we took the time to interview Demetri Potiris, Eminence's Executive Producer.
PALGN: Founding an orchestra can’t be easy. How did Eminence do it, and how do you manage to hold it all together? It must be rewarding to have created something from the ground up.
Potiris: Building something from nothing is never easy. Hiroaki started this all from an idea of creating a ‘classical’ concert for the youth of today and the way in which he thought it was best to reach this audience was to perform music from the popular mediums of this generations, primarily being videogames, anime, and film. This concert, aptly named A Night in Fantasia, went from a once off concert, to an annual, widely publicised and acclaimed event. From there, Eminence and its symphony orchestra was born…
PALGN: It also mustn’t be easy to even get the music to perform. Do you ever have to transcribe or arrange things yourselves, or do you mostly get pre-arranged suites from the composer?
Potiris: Getting permission to play these songs was a feat in itself. In the beginning, we would orchestrate the music ourselves, hiring one of Australia’s best, Nicole Brady, to provide transcriptions and arrangements. As things progressed and gaming/anime companies started to take notice, many of them would approach us (or vice versa) with full support for what we do and would help out in many ways, either by providing us with the score or creating unique arrangements just for that concert itself.
Eminence on stage at eGames '07
PALGN: It must be terrific to work with some of the original composers of classic scores. Tell us about some of the stars of the videogame music world you’ve worked with.
Potiris: In 2004, the well known composer Nobuo Uematsu (composer of Final Fantasy I – XI) appeared as the guest of honour for our Final Fantasy: A Night in Fantasia. Now, each year we try to bring the best known names in the biz, as well as composers that we think have provided great music.
Specifically, in 2007’s ANIF, we featured seven of the best video games composers - among them were Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy XII and Romeo x Juliet), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross and Xenogears) and Ko Otani (Shadow of the Colossus).
PALGN: Hiroaki said in his presentation at eGames that you are attempting to encourage an interest in symphonic music in young people via your performances. Do you think people listen to your performances, and then go back to the famous composers?
Potiris: I think that people now come to our concerts and realise just how much the music impacts their experience of the original game, anime etc. Long gone are the days where young people would go to see, say, a performance of Sibelius’ violin concerto. But now, we’re glad to see that the young demographic are attending what essentially is a ‘classical music’ concert. I’m sure the composers are even happier to see their work being performed live, outside of its original medium.
PALGN: Which is more important to Eminence – to promote appreciation of videogame and anime music, or to promote appreciation of orchestral music?
Potiris: One promotes the other, really. Promoting orchestral music is a main goal and we have also performed film only concerts - we performed an entire John Williams concert in 2005, world premiering music from Star Wars Episode III. So, it’s just not gaming and anime. However, you have to admit that it’s not every day that you can see a live concert of music from Shadow of the Colossus or Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Hiroaki Yura and Hitoshi Sakimoto
PALGN: Although Eminence is based in Sydney, you travel and perform widely, including performances in Asia. Do you find that you get a vastly different reception in Asia than you do in Australia? Your performance in Japan, for example, sold out in ten hours. Do you think videogame music is more ‘legitimate’ in Japan?
Potiris: There are always little differences everywhere you go. An American crowd seems to get a more riled up, with constant cheers and ovations, whereas in Japan they seem to enjoy the music on a more personal level and take in the experience. But all in all it’s always a well received reception.
I have noticed though, that with concerts in Japan, there always seems to be the ‘I HAVE to go to this’ factor, especially if it's a concert never to be repeated. This was evident by the fast sell out time for our last concert in Japan.
PALGN: Many conventional Australian orchestras have begun playing a wider range of music. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, for example, regularly plays a concert of film music. Do you think orchestras other than Eminence will eventually play concerts of videogame music?
Potiris: Although Eminence was the first to have a games and anime concert outside of Japan, since our inception, a few shows have popped up, like Video Games Live, Play! But these brands don’t represent an orchestra as such, rather they tour the brand using different players per show.
Having a dedicated orchestra for what we do is difficult on many levels, especially financially. But to reach the common 16 – 24 year olds, I’m sure orchestras will start to follow our lead.
Hiroaki Yura performing with the Eminence symphony
PALGN: Speaking of other orchestras, how does Eminence fit in? Do you feel Eminence is marginalised because you don’t play the type of music people assume orchestras should play? Or is it more open than that?
Potiris: I’d view playing anime/videogame music as a speciality, instead of a constraint. It would be a breath of fresh air if we could do some more traditional orchestral repertoire, especially since our musicians are classically trained. We have performed classical music in our concerts before and we will do so again - if anything, just for a change and also to show the audience that we are never bound to just any form of music.
PALGN: You often use video clips of games to complement your performances. Why is videogame music so enhanced by imagery? This seems to be a common approach for orchestras that perform videogame music.
Potiris: Especially for videogames, it brings back the sense the nostalgia to the casual gamer, as well as adding to the emotion of music and how music impacts the video so much. Having the music played live by an orchestra instead (depending on the game) of something ‘artificial’, is an experience that can only be had at our concerts.
PALGN: What does the future hold for Eminence?
Potiris: We have a concert this month (see www.eminenceonline.com for details) featuring the master of sounds composer Ko Otani (who composed Shadow of the Colossus and anime Haibane Renmei).
Mr Otani will be performing piano, percussion and more… all at once (no joke), along with Eminence artists and singer Aika. This concert will really be something else. Please check it out!
In terms of recordings, we finished an OST [Original Soundtrack] for a Playstation 3 game (er.. can’t say which one). Next year we are recording for a major game franchise (er… I also can’t say which one!).
In fact, in terms of recording, we hardly ever get to say what we have recorded until well after the game/anime/film has been released. I’m sure if you’re on our forums, you might be able to get some clues.
PALGN would like to thank Demetri Potiris for his time, and wish Eminence the best of luck in the future.
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