The soaring melodies of iconic video games such as “Kingdom Hearts” and “Final Fantasy VII” will take center stage Friday night during the first live performance of the Twin Cities Gamer Symphony Orchestra — Minnesota’s one and only video game music orchestra.
In cities across the globe, growing popularity and mainstream interest in video games have led to the creation of gamer orchestras, some of which exclusively play music from a specific series of games such as “The Legend of Zelda” or “Sonic the Hedgehog.” Up until August when the Twin Cities Gamer Symphony Orchestra was formed, the concept had missed Minnesota.
Matt Silverberg, a percussionist and co-founder of the orchestra, said the idea came from the group’s president, Kenny Schuster, who assists with running a nonprofit that puts on Minnesota’s annual video game and music convention VGM CON.
“We all said, ‘Hell, yeah, we definitely want to do this,’” said Silverberg, a 30-year-old professional percussionist and marimba player.
The orchestra has 62 members, and it allowed anyone to join. There was an expectation that everyone practice, but Silverberg said they didn’t want to discriminate based on skill level, partially because they weren’t sure how much interest they would receive.

Silverberg and his bandmates recruited members ranging from full-time musicians and music educators to amateur musicians, all of whom have a love of video games. A majority of the musicians are millennials, though there are some as young as high school students.
On Friday at 7:30 p.m., the orchestra will perform in the auditorium at Humboldt High School in St. Paul. The inaugural performance is titled “Power: On” and will feature the theme music from games including “Halo,” “Civilization,” “Myst” and more. It is free to attend and will be streamed online at twitch.tv/twincitiesgso.
Bianca Najera, a professional flutist who also serves as a publicity director for the orchestra, said she thinks there’s a stronger connection and joy gamers can get out of performing video game music. Najera and other orchestra members serve on a committee that arranges the music for their performances and decides which games they will perform.