Video Game Pianist
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The Video Game Pianist is a piano player whose video and audio performances have spread all across the internet. Both websites and P2P clients alike help spread his instrumentations of popular video game themes. He is one of the first pianists to gain recognition from people around the world for performing video game music on the piano.
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From Humble Beginnings
The Video Game Pianist, known in real life as Martin Leung, was first introduced at Ebaum’s World on July 2, 2004, in a video of him playing the piano. Initially he began with just a few songs from the Super Mario Brothers series, but later he went on to play songs from the Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Halo, Earthworm Jim, and Final Fantasy games.
Ebaum's World was just the starting point for the Video Game Pianist. As he recorded more digital audio and video performances, he became more widely known. As a result, numerous internet sites featured these performances and his popularity exploded as he amassed a worldwide audience. Various articles were written in such publications as "Night Life Montreal," articles on internet sites such as slashdot, and live radio interviews.
Currently the Video Game Pianist is studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music with world renown pianist Paul Schenly. Mozart and Beethoven are his top choices for favorite piano composers.
Mission
The Video Game Pianist has three goals he would like to accomplish with his piano career. First, he is dedicated to promoting video game music as well as elevating the image of video game music. He feels that people overlook the video game music genre and feels that it has alluring, wonderful music to offer.
His second goal is to enhance the image of the piano and to make it a more mainstream instrument in today's music culture. He wants to show that by performing video game music, a piano solo can be just as enjoyable or even more so than a piano accompanying a singer, such as Alicia Keys or Ben Folds.
Lastly, his third goal is to popularize classical music by performing video game music. He believes that video game music will build a bridge that will link the popular music world with the classical music world.
Not Just The Internet Anymore
The Video Game Pianist has been invited to this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), happening in May of 2005. In addition to this, Tommy Tallarico, known for being the first video game composer to release an album and for composing music for the video game Earthworm Jim, has invited the Video Game Pianist to go on tour with him as part of the Video Games Live Tour. He recently performed at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco during the Walk of Game and the G.A.N.G. Awards. He has also soloed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on “From the Top” in a performance showing “both fleet fingers and persuasive tempo flexibility,” according to the Tribune-Review. He competes regularly in local and national competitions and is the winner of numerous awards.