By Paul Nicolaou, Media and Communication Fellow 2026
The symphony orchestra is changing. The days of serving only the elite and aristocratic have slowly but surely been fading, and audiences’ tastes and cultural sensibilities have evolved dramatically over the past decade. And so, we are presented with the question: what is the purpose of the orchestra?
It’s a conundrum that extends to every corner of the symphonic ecosystem, from its performers to its programming, its audience, and everything in between. There is of course no simple answer, and no single answer either. However, it does present an incredibly exciting opportunity to reevaluate and redefine what the orchestra can offer—musically, artistically, and culturally. It’s a choice for artists and audiences to make together, and ultimately, there is one thing which is almost undeniable: the orchestra’s cultural purpose is fundamentally dynamic.
Symphony orchestras are increasingly embracing their role as a hybrid organism, presenting traditional classical concerts, introductions to the repertoire for newer audiences, and collaborating with cross-genre and multidisciplinary artists on a scale previously unseen. Arts organisations do have a choice as to how to navigate this dynamic purpose however, and as both an avid orchestral performer and game-music-enthusiast, I cannot help but watchfully and cautiously follow orchestras’ approach to this evolving cultural purpose with a trace of apprehension. I explore this in research undertaken in 2025, where I investigated how screen music has the potential to fruitfully contribute to the standard repertoire:
“With symphony orchestras increasingly adopting screen music as a ‘commercial’ venture, it is important to highlight the artistic value of this work independently, and the commonality it shares with the repertoire gracing the globe’s concert halls for centuries. In doing so, we become awake to the exponential possibilities and creative richness this repertoire offers when embraced alongside its Western classical counterparts.”
For an orchestra to program ‘an evening of classical music,’ performing ‘greatest hits’ from Mozart to Stockhausen, or Handel to Webern, would in most cases be considered totally absurd. And yet, the idea of attending a ‘Night at the Movies’ concert, or performance of ‘Video Games’ Biggest Hits’ is far more familiar. This formula seems to work fine, at least to an extent. Tickets generally sell, and the concerts appeal to an audience who may not be as interested in attending an evening of Mahler, for example. One cannot help but to wonder though—what else can be done? How can we creatively and engagingly celebrate this repertoire not for where it came from, but for what it is at its core—brilliant music.
Should we continue to treat screen repertoire as music which consistently belongs in a different concert series than an orchestra’s ‘mainstage’ season, the cultural divide will continue to be deepened to a point of irreversibility. By manufacturing the sentiment that music composed for the screen is somehow inherently less artistically rich, or doesn’t belong alongside its classical contemporaries, we unfairly define what artists’ perception of this repertoire’s value should be, and most pressingly, we unnecessarily categorise and divide our audiences.
The Australian Youth Orchestra is firmly leading the nation in this bold exploration, with AYO’s Flagship performing Nobuo Uematsu’s Final Fantasy IX Suite in their upcoming concert, alongside music by Daniel Nelson, Anna Clyne, and the 1945 version of Stravinsky’s dazzling Firebird Suite. Including game music in a concert of this format has not been done by any of Australia’s professional orchestras in history, and yet our national youth orchestra, made up of performers on the cusp of entering their professional career, are facing the opportunity head-on.
The artistic value of repertoire is, in most cases, defined by how we celebrate it, not the other way around. A prominent historical example of this is repertoire composed by women. It is no secret that music by female composers has been overlooked throughout history; not because music by women is of an inherently lower calibre, but rather because society has historically been far more hesitant to celebrate and embrace the repertoire of women. Many pianists know and regularly perform the sonatas of Mozart and preludes of Chopin for example, but few know the beautifully lyrical études of Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836), described by her biographer as the link between the two. Society has failed to celebrate Montgeroult’s music in the way her male contemporaries were, and has therefore failed the vibrancy of the repertoire itself.
The same notion can actively be suggested today of video game music. How many new-music-lovers are familiar with the reflective minimalism of Arvo Pärt or vivid textures of Anna Clyne, but not the evocative orchestrational intricacy of Austin Wintory or hauntingly beautiful melancholy of Jessica Curry? We have once again been offered the opportunity to define how we perceive the artistic value of this new body of repertoire—how we choose to respond is up to us. Game repertoire is yet to grace Australia’s mainstage professional orchestral programs not because it is inferior in musical quality or artistic value, but because it is an area which has yet to be embraced by artistic decision-makers beyond its medium.
This is not at all to say that all game music is worthy of being immortalised, just as the same is true for any other corner of Western classical music, or any artform at all. But to dismiss or discount art simply because of the mode for which it was created, only limits the creative possibilities available to us.
Gradual shifts in sentiment are emerging, however. We can observe this in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 2026 Season Opening Gala, where they will be performing John Williams’ Star Wars: Suite for Orchestra, followed by Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, and finally Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, all conducted by MSO’s Chief Conductor, Jaime Martín. Not a ‘movies’ concert. Not a ‘tribute’ concert. Just one of the country’s leading professional orchestras performing their annual opening gala, doing what it does best: celebrating the orchestra.
This is certainly the first time the MSO have performed Williams’ Star Wars Suite in a mainstage program in the past decade, if at all in their 120-year history. While we are yet to video game music integrated in the same way in Australia’s professional orchestras, we are gradually beginning to see it make a presence internationally, though indeed still a highly nascent concept.
On 26-27 October 2024, Canada’s Kingston Symphony presented a concert titled Tchaikovsky & Wintory, as part of their ‘Masterworks’ series (effectively their ‘mainstage’ season). The concert featured Canadian composer William Rowson’s Fanfare, followed by Tchaikovsky’s sweeping Romeo and Juliet, before closing the concert with Austin Wintory’s monumental 57-minute Traveler – A Journey Symphony. Wintory’s Traveler was created to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of the game Journey—Wintory adapting his GRAMMY-nominated game score into a symphonic suite for the London Symphony Orchestra. To put this programming into perspective, 2026’s ‘Masterworks’ series features Bruckner’s 4th Symphony in one program, Handel’s Messiah in another, and Mahler’s 5th Symphony to close the season, just to name a few.
It’s important to note that game musicis appearing on the stages of Australia’s professional orchestras in some capacity: Orchestra Victoria’s Indie Symphony and Indie Symphony II, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Press Play concert, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Gaming Music to name a few. These are real and meaningful contributions to the celebration of game music repertoire in Australia, and cannot be discounted. However, what the Australian Youth Orchestra are doing in 2026 takes this notion several daring steps further, embracing the repertoire as a core part of their practice, and in turn, their very purpose.
The embrace of new multimedia repertoire is not just valuable to the health of the orchestral ecosystem, it is fundamentally vital. It contributes exponentially to the perceptions and understanding of the repertoire, and its artistic offerings to artists, audiences, and to the artform itself.
It seems impossible to navigate this topic without acknowledging the often-discussed notion that classical music is a ‘dying’ art. While there is far more nuance within this topic than that statement permits, it is true that as performers and audiences emerge, so too must the repertoire with which they grow and connect with.
Creative Australia’s National Arts Participation Survey (2022) found that only 7% of Australians attend classical music such as orchestral or chamber music (down from 8% in 2019) and just 5% of Australians attend art music such as new classical, experimental new music or sound art. It also revealed that 67% of Australians aged 15–34 are likely to attend live music events, whereas those numbers drop to just 11% for art music and classical music 10% for those aged 20–34.
Fundamentally though, this is not necessarily about getting ‘younger’ people into the concert hall, but about better understanding and redefining what the orchestra can offer to all audiences, as well as to music itself. Young people encountering the concert hall should be a result of bold and forward-thinking creative decision-making, rather than being a direct cause.
There’s perhaps a preconception that older audiences may feel isolated by game music’s presence on programs, as the gaming medium is more likely to be an activity of those who are younger. Putting aside the fallacy in that notion, (as truthfully, anyone can enjoy video games, at any age), why do audiences need to have experienced the work in its original form in order to enjoy the music to which it was created for? One doesn’t need to have danced (or to even have seen) Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker to enjoy its concert suite for example—perhaps having done so would add a level of emotional resonance or sentimentality, but it’s hardly a prerequisite. The same surely applies to the gaming medium and its scores.
Ultimately, the possibilities are so much more powerfully expanded when our primary considerations shift towards aesthetic compatibly, artistic cohesion, and thoughtful storytelling, or in summary: What will this say to the audience? What will it give them? Performing an orchestral program of water-themed music? Why not open with Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, followed by Wintory’s oboe concertino Bottlenose Fantasia adapted from his score to 2016 game ABZÛ, before finishing with Debussy’s colourful La Mer. Curating an all-Australian concert of symphonic music? Allow Ella Macens’ stunning The Space Between Stars to capture the audience, before dazzling with Anne Cawrse’s vibrant marimba concerto Dare to Declare, and finally close the concert with Christopher Larkin’s emotional Hollow Knight Suite. I could go on…
Musical history has presented us with a truly unique opportunity. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate new creativity to audiences only offered once-a-generation. It’s an opportunity to redefine what the arts can offer to audiences, to blend our interests, to find what we have in common, and to celebrate it. The crux of this opportunity is now. It’s enormously exciting to think about exponential scope of possibility, but this excitement only sustains its value if we embrace the artistic possibilities of the 21st century with openness, boldness, and with fearlessness.
What the Australian Youth Orchestra is doing in 2026 is an Australian-first, and nothing short of internationally leading. To have an arts organisation with the global profile, national significance and artistic calibre that AYO does, not only unapologetically celebrating this repertoire, but integrating it into one of their two annual flagship concerts, represents the forefront of international creative leadership in orchestral performance.
Don’t miss this momentous, exhilarating (and free!) event, when the Australian Youth Orchestra’s Flagship perform Fire and Fantasy at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Bowl on Wednesday 11 February 2026 at 7:30pm.
