The Manila Symphony Orchestra’s Video Games Symphonic concert drew an ecstatic millennial audience and a record-breaking SRO concert attendance Thursday last week at the Ayala Museum.

“I’ve never played a video game in my life,” conductor Jeffrey Solares told his predominantly young audience. “But since concert attendance went beyond our expectations, we are bringing back the video games symphonic concert on May 26,” he added.

Music from Monster Hunter (by Masato Koda), Super Mario Bros (by Koji Kondo) and capped by the theme from the hit movie, “The Avengers,” made the new concert repertoire an ecstatic one for the millennials.

Equally well-loved was “Tifa’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VII (by Nobuo Oematsu) with concertmaster Diomedes Saraza Jr. doing highly lyrical violin passages.

“This new concert programming is our way of exploring a possible new frontier of orchestral music,” said MSO executive director Solares.

In a preconcert press con, the MSO also gave a preview of the 2019-2020 orchestral season which will open with the music of National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab on June 9, at the Yundai Hall, Arete, Ateneo De Manila, Quezon City. —CONTRIBUTED