FILM COMPOSER/SYMPHONIST ANDY BRICK CONDUCTS FIRST VIDEO GAME SYMPHONY CONCERT TO FEATURE MUSIC FROM "FINAL FANTASY", "HEADHUNTER", "MAFIA", "OUTCAST", "SHENMUE", "LEGEND OF ZELDA", "MERREGNON"

GC-Games Convention Symphony Concert includes Symphony Suites of Popular Game Music Scores and Original Music by Award-winning Film and Game Composer Andy Brick

New York, August 11th, 2003 – ANDY BRICK (www.andybrick.com), the award-winning film and game composer, today announced that he will conduct the World's first symphony concert to feature music from popular Western and Japanese video game soundtracks. The concert takes place during GC - Games Convention 2003 (www.gamesconvention.de) in Germany on August 20th, and will be performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra at Gewandhaus (www.gewandhaus.de), Leipzig. The event is being launched by the GC - Games Convention organizers as their opening ceremony and marks the first ever symphony concert performance of music from select American, European as well as Japanese video game titles.

"I am the conductor of the concert and one of the composers", confirmed Brick, "As conductor it will be my duty to bring these pieces to the orchestra, rehearse them and evoke the best interpretation possible. The process is pretty intense as I have a lot of scores in a lot of different styles from a lot of different composers!"

Brick has extensive experience in composing and recording live orchestral scores for cinematic soundtracks and is a winner of numerous prestigious awards for his original music, including ASCAP Young Film Composer Award, ASCAP Popular Music Award, and CINE Golden Eagle Award. Brick's music has also premiered and/or won Best Original Score accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Sony International Film Festival.

"Andy Brick is a prolific composer, conductor and symphonist of music for film, television, live concerts and interactive games", attested event producer Thomas Böcker, "His dedication and professionalism will undoubtedly help to make this concert a groundbreaking event!"

Brick has scored the fanfare to the concert which will officially open GC-Games Convention 2003 and his music for Merregnon II (www.merregnon.com), the epic fantasy game score album recently recorded with The Prague Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir, will also feature in a world premier Merregnon II 'suite' live performance. As Music Director/Composer, Conductor and Senior Orchestrator, Brick worked alongside producer Thomas Böcker (Merregnon Studios), and arranged and orchestrated new original compositions by veteran game composers such as Yuzo Koshiro (Shenmue, Streets of Rage) and Chris Hülsbeck (Star Wars: Rogue Leader series). The soundtrack is due for release later this year.

Andy Brick's award-winning music has enhanced a variety of critically acclaimed films like Chatham County (Sony International Film Festival), The Story of the Red Rose (Sundance Film Festival), and Uphill All The Way (Lean Parador Pictures) featuring Susan Sarandon. As the protege of Walt Disney Pictures' Senior Composer and Orchestrator Danny Troob, Brick wrote scores for animated movies such as Little Mermaid II and Lady and The Tramp II. Other film credits include Awake (Lucine Productions), The Trial of Fentris Waterloo (Independent Feature Film Market & First Run Film Festival), and Graduation Day (Spenelli Films). Productions for American Express, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Warner Bros. also feature music by Andy Brick.

In games he has composed music for projects by Electronic Arts, Sony, Interplay, Broderbund, Saffire, Mattel, JoWood, and Konami. His game score credits include Rick Dyer's (of Dragon's Lair fame) The Far Reaches, for which a bonus soundtrack album of Brick's music was released. He also scored Dyer's epic Tolkien-esque, fantasy adventure Kingdom II: Shadoan released on PC and PlayStation 2. In 2002, Brick provided new music for the US release of Arc The Lad Collection (Working Designs), one of the best-selling RPG videogame series in Japan. Additionally, he has written extensively about recording live orchestras for game soundtracks in Game Developer and other major industry publications. He is currently working with Electronic Arts' Maxis Studios as Composer and Orchestrator for Sim City 4: Rush Hour, recorded with The Moravian Philharmonic in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Brick is an Undergraduate of the University of Michigan (with Honors) where he studied Composition with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Leslie Basset. As well, he holds a Graduate studies certificate in Composition from Mannes College of Music, New York. Brick has conducted The Prague Symphony Orchestra, a Sandy DeCrescent A-List Hollywood orchestra on the Fox Newman soundstage, and members of the New York Philharmonic and Detroit Symphonies. Most recently Brick returned to the Czech Republic to record with a 70-piece orchestra for a new film soundtrack and he also completed orchestration for the TV movie The Music Man (ABC) featuring Matthew Broderick. He currently lives and works in New York. More information on Andy Brick is available online at www.andybrick.com

Venue: http://www.gewandhaus.de
Program: http://www.leipziger-messe.de/gc/gamesmusic_eng.shtml
Tickets: http://www.ticketonline.de/trans/prlist?IDX=9700453