Martin Leung

Video Game Pianist (real name Martin Leung) (also known as VGP) (formerly The Blindfolded Pianist) is one of the first pianists to gain worldwide recognition for playing popular video game music on the piano, both in concert venues and in online videos. Unlike many recognized musicians, Martin's breakthrough occured almost entirely online when, on July 2, 2004, a video of him playing the Super Mario Bros theme blindfolded appeared on eBaum's World.

Early Life

Born 1986 in Hong Kong to Chinese and Japanese parents, Martin Leung moved to California when he was three-years-old and began taking interest in the piano at the age of 4 when, hearing his sister play, he began imitating songs. Noticing his talent, Leung’s parents enrolled him in piano lessons.

Developing into a talented musician, Leung placed first twice at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, once in 1998 and once in 2000, and placed third at the 2002 Oberlin Piano Festival. Leung made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2003 at the age of 16 in the Isaac Stern Auditorium, performing Mendelssohn's Concerto No. 1 - Presto.

In 2004, as a high school senior, Leung put two of his passions – piano and videogames — together, listening to the Super Mario theme “ad nauseum” so he could write “out the notes and arrange them for piano” [1]. Leung’s hard work paid off on July 2, 2004 after EBaum's_World published his video that showed him playing the Super Mario Bros. theme blindfolded [2].

Performances

After Leung’s initial online introduction, which he estimates has been downloaded more than 40 million people [3], he began performing video game music from other popular gaming series' including Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Halo, Earthworm Jim, and Final Fantasy. As Martin released more videos of him performing, showcasing a broader collection of video game music, his work began to show up on MSN Video, EbaumsWorld, Gprime.net, Muchosucko.com, and Albinoblacksheep.com.

In February 2005, noticing Leung’s skill and growing popularity, Tommy Tallarico asked Leung to join his upcoming Video Games Live tour. Before touring with VGL, Tommy asked Leung to perform at the newly minted Walk of Game and 2005’s Game Developer Conference’s Game Audio Network Guild Awards (GANG). Finally, on July 6, 2005 Leung performed his arrangements of Final Fantasy’s "The Prelude" and "One Winged Angel” to the 11,000 fans in the Hollywood Bowl. In attendance were Hideo Kojima, Koji Kondo (via pre-recorded video), Lorne Lanning, Yuji Naka, Marty O’Donnell, and Ted Price [4].

In 2006, Leung performed his piano arrangements of the Monkey Island, Halo 2, Myst, and Advent Rising games at the Game Developers Conference’s Game Audio Network Guild Awards for some of the composers who wrote the music that has made him famous. In attendance were Tim Larkin, Clint Bajakian, Marty O'Donnell, Jack Wall, and Tommy Tallarico, respectively.

Trivia

Martin Leung has been covered by Nintendo Power, GAME Magazine, CUBE Magazine, Night Life Montreal, MTV, 1up, Gamespot, and Slashdot
He has three goals he wishes to accomplish as the VGP: promote and elevate video game music's image, enhance the piano’s image so it can become a more mainstream instrument, and, since he believes a bridge exists between classic and video game music, his third goal is to popularize classical music [5].
Leung studies under world-renowned pianists Paul Schenly and Daniel Shapiro at the Cleveland Institute of Music
Mozart and Beethoven are Leung's favorite piano composers.
Tommy Tallarico is a big fan of the Video Game Pianist, calling him "the modern-day Chopin or Lizst -- Bach, Beethoven. He's all of those guys wrapped up into one . . . He just happens to love video games."
When Leung performed at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, on October 13, 2005, he was spurred by the audience to do 21 encores [6].
Leung has been called a prodigy by the by the Phoenix New Times, River Front Times, and the East Bay Express.

External links

Video Game Pianist
Pianist Makes a Name As a Video Game Virtuoso
MTV's Obssessed: Q & A with the VGP
An Evening of Musical Gaming: Video game music celebrated at the Hollywood Bowl