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After climbing two flights of stairs, 40-or-so people waited in the hallway outside of Auer Hall about 20 minutes before the show, hearing the faint smattering of distant noises as musicians finish their tuning and sneak in one last rehearsal.

Inside Auer Hall itself, the room hums with greetings between audience members making their way into the space and students and faculty catching up.

By the time the concert started, the hall was filled with about 300 audience members for “Voices and Video Games,” the first collaboration between the Music in Games Society and the Jacobs School of Music’s contemporary vocal ensemble, NOTUS.

The concert was directed by Dr. Dominick DiOrio, who also conducted six of the eight compositions performed. Music school directing doctoral students Gabriel Fanelli and Benjamin Wegner each got to conduct a piece as well.

After welcoming the audience, DiOrio invited music school senior and concert producer Sy Anderson to speak. Anderson is the president of the Music in Games Society and had the original idea for the concert 10 months ago.

“It's been a lot of work. It's been a lot of fun getting in contact with the original composers of these works,” Anderson said.

Anderson walked to the back of the stage and joined NOTUS, Anderson would perform both vocally as a bass and as a featured arranger. After Anderson’s exit, DiOrio continued to preview the concert, highlighting the novelty of a performance dedicated to video game scores.

“For me, the legitimacy of this music is what's really important to me about this concert,” DiOrio said. “It's so easy to think about this music as less important than say, Beethoven, or any of the other composers that we have come here to study. This music is just as deserving of studying, of performance, and of our attention as any other music that we study.”

The first piece of the night was “Antarctic Oscillation” from “Risk of Rain 2.” The piece was originally composed by Chris Christodoulou and was arranged for “Voices and Video Games” by master's student Michael Eaton. Eaton described the game as a “cycle” where the main character is taken on a journey only to end up where they had first started.

“That sense of triumph when we arrive back where we started, energized and ready to go again is one of the reasons I liked this piece so much,” Eaton said. “It's similar to the feeling of triumph that video games as a whole are known for.”

“Antarctic Oscillation” was led by oscillating percussion elements, introducing the cyclical nature of the piece. While conducting one of the more energetic portions of the composition, DiOrio bounced on the balls of his feet to best convey the emotions of the song, even hopping on one foot for a moment.

The second piece, “Ever Come to an End” from “Xenoblade Chronicles 2,” was an acapella choral performance originally composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and was arranged by Anderson. Sophomore Catherine Browne sang a baritone solo during the piece. receiving a 15 second applause from the audience at the composition’s conclusion.

“The Song of the Sea” from “Rime,” originally composed by David García Díaz, was arranged by master's student Jamey Guzman. It was performed third in the show.

The plot of “Rime” is ultimately revealed to be a representation of the stages of grief, with “The Song of the Sea” representing a lost lullaby sung by the parents of a deceased child. While conducting the piece, DiOrio crouched down, as if coaxing the melody out of the parents’ lips.

Music school senior Erin C. Blake arranged “Confronting Myself,” which was composed by Lena Raine. “Confronting Myself” from “Celeste” was the sixth piece of the night. The game follows Madeline as she climbs a mountain while confronting the antagonist, a manifestation of her self-doubt, Part of You, but is commonly referred to as “Badeline” by fans of the game.

“Badeliene is not your enemy, she's a part of you, and so your job during this part of the game is to get her to see that,” Blake said. “During this fight, you're reaching out to her, she's trying to push you away. The reason that I chose ‘Confronting Myself’ to arrange for this concert is because not only is there a choir, but it's the part of the track that musically represents what's happening in the game. As you're fighting her, as you're making more progress…the choir starts to get more glitchy and it sort of fragments as her resolve starts to break down until finally, you're able to reconcile. You're able to join forces and finish the climb.”

The final piece of the night was “Chakalaka” from “Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!” a lighthearted game about operating a food truck in a war-torn, futuristic United States. Composed by Jonathan Geer, the performance was arranged by recently graduated Jacobs School of Music doctoral student Isaac Smith and current doctoral student Drake Eshleman, who introduced the piece.

“Chakalaka is an infectiously upbeat and exciting vocal tune, and its seemingly nonsense lyrics bear no reference to the South African vegetable, that is just its name,” Eshleman said. “It’s sort of a pig Latin on Spanish lyrics, so the first word, ‘cocino’ or ‘cook,’ is transformed to ‘copo-ce-no-po.’”

After the conclusion of “Chakalaka,” the crowd gave the performers, the arrangers and conductors a standing ovation.

The Music in Games Society hopes to host another event this semester. NOTUS will perform next on March 11, 2025, in “Reflections and Meditations.”