Some thoughts on themed orchestra concerts

My partner and I got to watch the NieR: Orchestra Concert back in February 2024. That was really cool, and I thought it was nice that there were concerts that featured the great soundtracks from games and other modern media.

After that experience—and also after getting back to the Philippines lol it was just a random vacay back then—I noticed an uptick of themed orchestra concerts being advertised to me. Nung una I didn’t really think much about it, more of parang ay nauso lang, okay.

Pero now na I know that the people behind Expedition 33’s soundtrack is also hosting their own concert tour bigla ako napaisip: bakit mas exciting eto sakin versus all the other ones I saw?

I remember looking at those advertisements on Facebook, where some would feature orchestra music performances for stuff I like: One Piece, Super Mario(?), and also other popular stuff like Jujutsu Kaisen, I think there was an Undertale one… etc. Basically any game or show that had a soundtrack that could be played by an orchestra, at some point there would be a concert for it. Whenever I saw one on my feed, at one point napa-“oh, meron ganito nanaman” ako sa dami :))

And then afterwards I felt some unease with knowing those exist, pero I didn’t feel that when I saw the Expedition 33 concert announced. Napa-why? ako sa sarili ko then.

I recently realized: it’s because these feature the actual artists or musicians who were part of the original soundtrack. The other ones were just… well, orchestras playing music from certain places I guess?¹

The promotional posters also all felt templated at some point. I think this happened around… 2025 maybe? Like yung featured sa poster would be the seating arrangement, tapos may logo nung whatever media (game, anime, show, movie, etc.) sa upper right, tapos yung title nung concert, tapos concert details (like dates and location). Tapos ayun lang.

I know some friends who would try² to go to those, so there was some traction. But I guess, nothing bad with that, maybe…? it’s just gonna be a different kind of concert 😆

Iba yung dating if you get to hear the actual people who helped make the original soundtrack be part of the performance. It’s also highly likely na yung mga orchestras na kasama nung mga nagtotour na main musicians or artists could either be local rin or yung pwede ma-hire to perform the music pieces, since logistics concern rin yun. Pero ganun pa rin eh, since nandun pa rin yung mga original artists or musicians, that’s kind of part of the appeal :))

Ayun lang, I recently shared this with my partner when I realized it the other day and I figured I’d write about it as well here para it’s just somewhere :)) It kinda does feel like a cash grab pero I guess if it’s trending, it works, and people get entertained anyways, so… let other people have their fill, but I’ll prolly pass 😆

Dunno if anyone else has realized this, but again, I just wanted to randomly share this thought :)) Thanks for reading hahaha