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 occurred 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, after hearing his sister play, he began imitating songs. His parents noticed his potential and enrolled him in piano lessons.
By the late-nineties, Leung had developed into a talented musician, placing first two times at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, once in 1998 and once in 2000, and placing 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]. On July 2, 2004, his hard work paid off: the video he and a friend had created of him performing songs from the Super Mario Bros. series blindfolded appeared on EBaum's_World [2].
Performances
After Leung’s initial online introduction, which he estimates has been downloaded by 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 iFilm, MSN Video, EbaumsWorld, [4] Gprime, Muchosucko, and Albino Blacksheep.
In February 2005, noticing Leung’s skill and growing popularity, Tommy Tallarico asked Leung to join his upcoming Video Games Live tour, the first North American concert tour devoted entirely to video game music. Before making appearances with VGL, Tallarico asked Leung to perform at the newly minted Walk of Game and at 2005’s Game Developers Conference’s Game Audio Network Guild Awards (G.A.N.G). In May 2005, he was hired by BradyGames to perform piano at its E3 booth. On July 6, 2005, Video Game Live's premiere, Leung performed piano arrangements of Final Fantasy’s "The Prelude" and "One Winged Angel” to approximately 11,000 fans in the Hollywood Bowl. Notable attendees include Hideo Kojima, Koji Kondo (via pre-recorded video), Lorne Lanning, Yuji Naka, Marty O’Donnell, and Ted Price [5].
At the March 2006 Game Developers Conference, Leung performed his piano arrangements of the Zelda, Monkey Island, Halo 2, Myst, and Advent Rising games at G.A.N.G; some of the composers for these games including Tim Larkin, Clint Bajakian, Marty O'Donnell, Jack Wall, and Tommy Tallarico were in attendance. During the GDC, Leung also played songs from Final Fantasy at the Video Games Live sold-out concert in the San Jose Civic Auditorium.
Trivia
- Martin Leung has been covered by Advanced Media Network, Cleveland's Plain Dealer, Nintendo Power, GAME Magazine, CUBE Magazine, Night Life Montreal, MTV, 1up, Gamespot, and Slashdot
- He has three goals he wishes to accomplish: 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 [6].
- 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 [7].
- 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