- ARAB NEWS
- 08 Dec 2024
Since 1975
DUABI: On July 28, Dubai’s Theatre of Digital Art (TODA) mixed classical music and gaming in a unique concert that featured piano covers of video games’ original soundtracks paired with gamers playing simultaneously in the background.
The pianist Gayane Aslanyan, an award-winning Armenian pianist with more than 20 years of experience, performed three to four of her pre-arranged compositions of four video games: League of Legends, The Witcher 3, Skyrim, and Genshin Impact.
“On the last show, I decided to make the (setlist) with the soundtracks that I love from the games that are not so famous,” Aslanyan reflected. “We decided to change the program a bit towards more popular games, so we added League of Legends and Genshin Impact.”
Unlike TODA’s first video game soundtrack piano show, where the venue brought one streamer to play the game in the background while the pianist was playing, the interactive space stepped up the production this time by bringing four different gamers who played the game live in the background.
The streamers included popular Russian League of Legends streamer diamondprox as well as local streamers such as Dubai-based creator Bibi Zumot, who played Skyrim, and Abu Dhabi-based creator Nathalie De Brabanter, who played Genshin Impact. All streamers were broadcasting on Twitch simultaneously.
“From the technical perspective, it is a very difficult production because we will need to have a lot of coordination during the concert because it will be live,” Nina Arutyunyan, promoter at Good Music Agency who organized the show at TODA, told Arab News Japan prior to the show.
The setlist included, but was not limited to, League of Legends’ ‘Legends Never Die, ‘Get Jinxed,’ The Witcher 3’s ‘Lullaby of a Woe,’ and Skyrim’s ‘From Past to Present.’
“I picked the songs I can manage and get a good sound with the piano. Generally, I make very complicated arrangements and I’ve been struggling to practice them so I think many of them are difficult,” the pianist said.
The pianist concluded the set with the Genshin Impact songs, where every arrangement transferred the guest to a different season. From ‘Hanachirusato’ to ‘Fontaine,’ each song took the guests on a majestic journey throughout the four seasons while they watched the game’s enchanting scenery.
Aslanyan shared with Arab News Japan that the hardest song she picked for the concert is a piece from Genshin Impact, as it is an orchestral piece. She hopes that the audience enjoyed it on Sunday.
Moreover, Arutyunyan said that she would love to produce this concert beyond Dubai. “I talked to people from Europe, and they told me that it would be interesting for a European audience. We (also) want to do something like a Middle East and North Africa tour. I see it as a cross-cultural experience more than an art performance,” she shared.
Furthermore, on July 27, Aslanyan held a Studio Ghibli concert at TODA, where she played songs from popular Hayao Miyazaki’s movies such as “Spirited Away,” “Kiki’s Delivery Services,” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
The artist held the same concert last February. She followed it by releasing an album of her arrangements of the concert on music services. The latest TODA Studio Ghibli concert introduced a small lecture about Miyazaki’s history.
