By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow
Hi! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and this past September I traveled to Washington D.C. I’d been asked, as the current winner of the Grammy Award for Best Video Game Soundtrack, to speak in the Congressional Auditorium of the Capitol Building, at an event advocating for the importance of video game music. It was an enormous honor! Alongside a panel of fellow Grammy Award winners and nominees, we discussed the process of composing for games, sharing stories and memories while doing our best to help lawmakers understand the inherent creativity and expertise involved in crafting a video game musical score.
Participating in panels and discussions like this one has always been very inspiring for me. I’m grateful to be a part of this amazing professional network of game audio wizards, as they continually innovate and share ideas with boundless enthusiasm and generosity. Through a lively exchange of ideas over time, the game audio profession has built a deep reservoir of knowledge and experience that enriches the entire community. With that in mind, I’d like to use this article to share a collection of resources that I’ve gathered from across the internet, providing both educational enrichment and inspiration for game audio folks. We’ll start with a collection of informative conferences that include rich game audio content. Then, we’ll move to an assortment of music festivals and symphony concerts dedicated to music from video games. We’ll include a couple of awesome organizations that are serving the needs of game audio scholars and researchers. And finally, we’ll lay out all the vibrant online discussion forums and helpful communities ready to assist game audio practitioners. So let’s get started!
GAME AUDIO CONFERENCES
Here’s a list of the game industry conferences that currently offer content directly related to game audio and music (both creation and implementation). Most of these events are focused solely on game audio, while a few others offer game sound as a part of a larger portfolio of lectures and discussions encompassing the entire discipline of video game development. I’ve also included a few videos (when available) of representative lectures and panels from the past few years.
Formerly known the Game Developers Conference, the GDC Festival of Gaming is a cross-disciplinary event for game developers. The conference includes a track focused on the disciplines of both game music composition and game audio creation. This year’s GDC event is offering less-expensive pass options than were available in previous years, and an extra focus on off-site events around the city of San Francisco. As an example of past lectures in the game music track, here’s my lecture from GDC 2024 about my music for the video game Jurassic World: Primal Ops.
This event concerns itself with music and audio equipment and technologies, from music creation software to audio and music hardware, along with the research and scholarship needed to advance the science of audio technology development. If you’re a technically-minded composer who likes lots of intricate detail about equipment and tools, this event is for you. Here’s an example talk that delves into the highly technical process of building a music synthesizer as a spiritual successor to the famous OSCar synth musical instrument.
This is a free one-day virtual conference that allows attendees to get a taste of the larger Audio Developer Conference while attending shorter technical sessions that focus on specific aspects of music and audio technology. The latest ADCx Gather event featured lectures on music interactivity design and procedural game music.
Audio Engineering Society Convention
There’s no denying that composers nowadays need music and audio gear. As the premiere convention for music and audio technology and equipment manufacturers, this event provides the opportunity to play with the newest music and audio gear while hearing from the top developers and manufacturers about future trends and innovations in music creation and recording workflows. Here’s a presentation from AES New York 2019 given by a panel of music producers sharing critical knowledge about the history of music-making, and the recording industry’s growing pains as music creation moved into the digital age.
Develop:Brighton is the biggest cross-disciplinary game development conference in the UK, including a comprehensive music composition and audio track. Here’s a lecture by game composer Guy Whitmore about his strategies for music design and implementation in games:
As a two-day conference focusing solely on audio and music for video games, GameSoundCon provides learning sessions in both creative and technical disciplines. Here’s an example lecture about the principles of interactive music by professor Leonard Paul:
High Score / Game Audio Conference
High Score bills itself as “Australia’s Premiere Game Audio Conference,” taking place each year during Melbourne International Games Week. Here’s an example panel that discusses possible sources of royalty income for game musicians:
GAME MUSIC FESTIVALS
Like other music festivals, these events give music lovers the chance to mosh and rock hard. Unlike other music festivals, the music here is from video games, including lots of classic tunes from early console favorites.
Standing for “Music And Gaming Festival,” MAGFest is held each year in National Harbor Maryland, providing a venue for video game cover bands while simultaneously mounting a huge and spirited game convention and game development conference. Here’s the entire set of The Bit Brigade video game music cover band during MAGFest 2025:
MAGWest is the San Jose satellite event of MAGFest, offering similar content to west coast gamers and game music fans. Here’s the entire set for MASTER BOOT RECORD at MagWest 2024:
Organized by the non profit organization “Gamer’s Rhapsody,” VGM Con is an annual event taking place in Minnesota, providing opportunities for gaming, cosplay, concerts, and even an ad-hoc orchestra clinic allowing attendees to bring their instruments and play symphonic game music together during the event’s recital. Here’s a performance of music from the game Ace Combat 7 by The Tiberian Sons during VGMCon 2024:
Bit Gen Gamer Fest is a one day music festival event taking place at The Ottobar in Baltimore Maryland as a satellite event presented by the MAGFest organization.
GAME MUSIC CONCERTS
We won’t find any moshing or rocking out at these concerts, but that doesn’t make them any less epic! These are the orchestral symphony concerts currently performing video game music around the world. Where possible, I’ve included some concert videos so that we can see what makes these performances exciting.
Organized by the Game Music Foundation in Poland, the Game Music Festival presents lush orchestral concerts of game music at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the National Forum of Music in Poland. Here’s the Baldur’s Gate 3 Suite performance from Game Music Festival 2020:
Since its first epic performance at the famous Hollywood Bowl in 2005, Video Games Live has performed over 500 shows of video game music in venues around the world. Here’s a Feb. 2025 performance of the Halo Theme from Video Games Live in Cedar Rapids Iowa:
Featuring a prolific list of blockbuster games in its catalog of concerts (including League of Legends, Diablo, and World of Warcraft), the Game On! tours bring video game symphonic music to audiences around the world.
Distant Worlds: Music from FINAL FANTASY
Since 2007, this concert tour has brought the music from the Final Fantasy roleplaying game series to concert halls in every corner of the globe. The tour draws its playlist from early games in the Final Fantasy franchise, curated by composer Nobuo Uematsu.
Based in Cleveland, the Video Game Symphony is one of the world’s only symphony orchestras devoted solely to video game music. Here’s a Video Game Symphony concert performance in 2024 of “The Dragonborn Comes” from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
Founded by cellist Lukas Stasevskij, the Game Music Collective is a combination band and symphony orchestra performing video game music in venues across Finland. Here’s a Game Music Collective stage performance in 2023 of the main theme from Trine 2:
Game Music in Concert / Game Symphonic
From renowned game music conductor Eimear Noone, these two game music symphonic tours feature selections from blockbuster games such as Halo, The Last of Us, Fallout, and Starcraft.
A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy
Consisting of small chamber music arrangements from the Final Fantasy franchise, this tour has performed over 100 concerts around the world since its inception in 2014.
This Grammy Award-winning big band reimagines video game music using all the swagger of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller-style jazz, sprinkled liberally with inspiration from the great American songbook. Here’s an entire concert from The 8-Bit Big Band from December 2024, performed at Sony Hall in NYC:
Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra
As a community ensemble in the Washington D.C. area, the Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra focuses exclusively on eclectic game music repertoire performed before live audiences and simultaneously live-streamed on Twitch. Here’s a performance of music from Helldivers 2, performed during the Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra Fall 2024 concert:
Elden Ring Symphonic Adventure
Assassin’s Creed Symphonic Adventure
Death Stranding – Strands of Harmony
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour
Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons
Packaged by the production company Overlook Events, this slate of concerts offers glittering spectacles complete with large-screen gameplay videos and dazzling light displays enhancing the impact of the orchestral performances. In addition to their concerts focusing on film, animation and popular music, Overlook Events has an entire catalog of video game concerts with performance dates throughout 2026.
Using the storytelling structure of Joseph Campbell’s well-known “Hero’s Journey,” and narrated by voice actor Nigel Carrington (known best for his voice work in the video game Dear Esther), this touring concert features music from such games as God of War Ascension, Guild Wars 2, Dragon Age, and Shadow of the Colossus, among many others.
Celebrating music for all forms of entertainment media in a festive event in the heart of London, this festival includes a yearly concert that caps off their Game Music Day and features music from such games as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Founded by James Keirle and Galen Woltkamp-Moon, the London Video Game Orchestra performs a wide variety of game music repertoire throughout London.
EVENTS FOR GAME AUDIO & MUSIC RESEARCHERS
Are you an eternal student of game audio? Are you a deeply intelligent researcher investigating the role of audio in interactive entertainment? Do you have a passion for learning about the history of the medium, or for studying the physiological and psychological effects of music on gamers? Then you might appreciate these two conferences, which focus solely on the realm of game music from the viewpoint of education, scholarship and research.
The North American Conference on Video Game Music
Ludomusicology Conference on Video Game Music and Sound
GAME AUDIO / MUSIC COMMUNITIES & FORUMS
Finally, here are the currently-active online communities where fellow game music and audio experts seek each other out for advice, knowledge, and camaraderie!
Video Game – Composers & Sound Designers on Facebook
Audiokinetic Wwise Official Community Q&A
Gearspace.com Music for Games Forum
IndieDB.com Sound Design & Composition Forum
VGMdb.net Video Game Music Discussion
LinkedIn Game Audio Network Guild Group
Twitter / X GameComposer Hashtag
Game Audio Denizens on Facebook
GameAudio Starter Pack on Bluesky
CONCLUSION
So that’s the end of this collection of resources for game music composers and game audio professionals! Happy New Year to everyone, and let’s jump into 2026 with renewed excitement for our work making music for games! In the meantime, you can learn more about game music composition in my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music. Thanks for reading!
Winifred Phillips’ accomplishments as a video game composer include her Grammy® Award-Winning original musical score for the video game Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (listen to the official soundtrack on Spotify). Her Wizardry soundtrack has also won a Society of Composers & Lyricists Award. Phillips is known for composing music for games in many of the most famous and popular franchises in gaming: Assassin’s Creed, God of War, Total War, The Sims, LittleBigPlanet, Lineage, Jurassic World, and Wizardry. Her music for Sackboy: A Big Adventure garnered a BAFTA Award nomination. Phillips’ other awards include the D.I.C.E. Award, six Game Audio Network Guild Awards (including Music of the Year), and four Hollywood Music in Media Awards. She is the author of the award-winning bestseller A COMPOSER’S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC, published by the MIT Press. An interview with her has been published as a part of the Routledge text, Women’s Music for the Screen: Diverse Narratives in Sound, which collects the viewpoints of the most esteemed female composers in film, television, and games. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.