Games In Concert: The Score (2024)
The Score is a live and interactive orchestra experience in which the audience plays three games on their phones. The "scores" of those games shape, in real time, the music the orchestra plays.
The project was developed with the Metropole Orkest, one of the first European orchestras to bring video game music into the concert hall. That raised a question: what if we brought not only the music of video games to the concert hall, but the interactivity of video games too? The answer was a completely new kind of concert experience. One in which the audience is transformed from a passive observer into an active participant in co-creating the magic in the room.
The experience is built from three connected games that move from competition to collaboration, while telling a story about play. In the first game, the audience is split into four groups, each scoring points for a different section of the orchestra. In the second, the audience works as one, steering a ball down a track together. After warming up those collaborative muscles, in the third game the audience becomes a choir, singing in harmony with the orchestra.
Since its premiere with the Metropole Orkest, The Score has been performed with other orchestras all over the world.
What if we brought not only the music of video games to the concert hall, but the interactivity of video games too?
My involvement
I was involved as a freelancer working for The Smartphone Orchestra, taking on responsibilities as creative developer and one of the two artistic directors. I was closely and hands-on involved from the very beginning, conceptualising and prototyping the games and designing how they look, all the way through to finishing the project. I still tour with it now as a technician, running the video-side of the show and making sure the gameplay stays smooth for the audience.
Performances
With the Metropole Orkest:
- 18 January 2024, Zwolse Theaters, Zwolle
- 21 January 2024, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven
- 27 January 2024, De Vereeniging, Nijmegen
- 1 February 2024, Muziekcentrum Enschede
- 7 February 2024, Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam
- 9 February 2024, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle, Bielefeld (Germany)
- 11 December 2024, Amare, Den Haag
With the Adelaide Youth Orchestra:
- February 2026, Star Theatres, Adelaide Fringe (opening weekend, part of the Immersive Worlds programme)
With the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg:
- 15 March 2026, Nikolaisaal, Potsdam (Germany), plus a school concert on 16 March 2026
The Score is made possible thanks to Het Cultuurfonds, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and Cultuurloket DigitALL.
The Score can be booked through the Smartphone Orchestra.
