We recently connected with Becca Michaelson and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Becca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

Video game music is the musical score that you hear when playing a video game. Video game music (or VGM) has journeyed from 8 bit programmable sounds to fully orchestrated pieces. The music of a video game plays such a strong role in the player’s experience with the game. Sometimes the music even changes based on decisions the player makes. VGM often loops or repeats so the player ends up hearing the same song a lot. It really can become a core memory for people.

Musicians have been creating their own arrangements and covers of video game songs for many years. Video game music is now so popular that it has its own Grammy category, live orchestral shows of popular games like the Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy, and gamer orchestras popping up all over the world.

The VGM scene is small and supportive. We saw these gamer orchestras appear, such as the Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra (the premier gamer orchestra), and we started to wonder if it would be possible to create one in Minnesota. The idea came from Kenny Schuster and Vaughn Rowles. Schuster and Rowles are both string players who created a non-profit organization called Gamer’s Rhapsody. Gamer’s Rhapsody is “a nonprofit dedicated to connecting artists, musicians, developers, and every kind of video game fan to offer creative events, unique experiences, and educational resources while building a community that promotes and celebrates the art of video games and those who make it.” They also started an event called VGM Con, which is a three day music convention of VGM performances and panels.

Schuster and Rowles started floating the idea of creating the gamer orchestra to more musicians in the local community. We started to become more organized and created a team of seven. Our first meeting was in August of 2024 and we hit the ground running. We had to find musicians! First we asked our friends and colleagues, then we put out calls on nerdy Facebook groups such as Twin Cities Geeks and Twin Cities Area Theatre Pit Musicians.

Our first event was a jam session where we read lead sheets together. We booked a small music school’s lobby for this event and to our surprise, 40 people showed up! There were not enough chairs or music stands for everyone interested! This was when we knew we had something really special on our hands.

Our first rehearsal was in October of 2024. The high school band room we rented was full as 62 musicians had joined our group. We decided we wanted to include everyone, regardless of skill level or instrument. We even have saxophones, electric guitars, and singers in our orchestra! We have everyone from high schoolers to professional musicians.

Becca, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The Twin Cities Gamer Symphony Orchestra (TCGSO) is a new community orchestra with the goal of elevating and sharing the music of video games in the greater Twin Cities area of Minnesota. It was founded in the summer of 2024 by a group of musicians who all met through Gamer’s Rhapsody. TCGSO is a subsidiary of Gamer’s Rhapsody, a 501c3 Arts Support Organization. Gamer’s Rhapsody is the same organization that plans and runs the video game music convention called VGM Con. TCGSO puts on two video game music concerts per year for the community that are accessible and affordable. Gamer’s Rhapsody, VGM Con, and TCGSO help foster the ever-growing community of people who perform, arrange, design, compose, or appreciate the music of video games.

TCGSO was the vision of Ken Schuster, an orchestra director, board member of Gamer’s Rhapsody, and lifelong lover of video game music. He approached a few musicians in the community from Gamer’s Rhapsody to gauge their interest in helping him create a community orchestra. Our first committee meeting happened in July of 2024 at Blue Tree Music Education in Minneapolis, scheming if this idea was even possible. Soon we had a seven-member board and lots of big ideas. We put out the word to gather musicians and had our first jam session together reading lead sheets. In October, we had our first rehearsal at Humboldt High School in St. Paul and in January of 2025 we had our first ever concert. The idea came to life! With 62 musicians on our team, we put on our first concert titled Power: ON.

Our first concert had over 500 people in the audience and over 150 people watching the livestream on Twitch. Our little orchestra, only six months old, accomplished something none of us believed possible! We are so excited to perform more video game music and involve our community.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Our Publicity Director, Bianca Najera, is our social media expert. She has been creating short reels such as “Choose Your Character” and “Scenes from a video game orchestra dress rehearsal”. She has been featuring individual members from our orchestra to help build community. She has gotten sponsors to do giveaways, which highlights other local artists and businesses in our community. Her goal is to post a reel or a picture every few days.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Simply that all of us on the staff of TCGSO just LOVE video games and their soundtracks. We’ve spent large parts of our lives playing video games and absorbing the music. For many of us, video game music inspired our careers or our instruments. Becca Michaelson, the TCGSO president, chose her fifth grade instrument of flute because it was closest to the ocarina sounds she heard when playing the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. We know that people have strong connections to the games they played in childhood. Nostalgia is a big factor in enjoying VGM. We want to provide musicians and our audiences with a way to enjoy this music that we all love.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tcgso.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tc.gso/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tcgso/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/tcgso Our website is not fully finished yet, but our Instagram and Facebook have the most content right now!

Image Credits
Ruben Najera Photography Anthony Hamer Photography