The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a nice write up on the Dear Friends: Music of Final Fantasy that played in Georgia over the weekend. The piece was actually written before the concert, but does a job of explaining both the cultural importance of the concert and why concert halls around the country are suddenly falling all over themselves to do video game performances.

The piece also has some interesting trivia, like the fact that an orchestra that wants to play the music pays $100,000. That fee includes sheet music rental, video equipment, a technical director and a conductor. The hosting site has to provide the orchestra, chorus and of course the venue, but gets to keep the entire box office receipts.

The question that lingers long after the male 20 to 30-year-old demographic has wandered from the concert hall humming bits of Final Fantasy, is whether this collision of pop culture and pops has any sort of lasting effect towards revitalizing the concert scene. Music historian Joseph Horowitz says there is no clear answer:

Final Fantasy [AJC, thanks All Games.com]

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