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Last night I had the pleasure of seeing a seven-piece ensemble from Eminence Symphony Orchestra perform live as part of Wai-Con, one of Perth’s major anime conventions. Most gamers and anime fans will probably be familiar with Eminence, if not by name then through their body of work. They are a Sydney-based group that mostly plays music from anime and video games, founded in 2003 with the aim of re-connecting young people with orchestral music in a live setting. They’ve played many successful concerts both in Australia and across the globe, and after forging a high reputation for themselves have also been asked to record a number of soundtracks. You may have heard their work in games such as Valkyria Chronicles and Soul Calibur IV or anime such as Romeo x Juliet and The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk, and they will also be featured in two very high-profile upcoming releases: Diablo III and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Last night’s concert was entitled Destiny: Promised Legacy, and was performed by a seven-piece ensemble including Hiroaki Yura (violin, also the director of Eminence), Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich (violin), Luke Spicer (viola), Geoffrey Gartner (cello), Jem Harding (piano), Roger Lock (guitar) and Chiron Meller (percussion). The programme began with five songs from Studio Ghibli films, followed by six songs composed by Tenmon for Makoto Shinkai’s films before a twenty-minute interval. The focus on Makoto Shinkai and Tenmon was in support of Eminence’s latest CD release entitled Promise, which features thirteen recordings of songs form Shinkai’s films. Hiroaki Yura playfully informed us that the recording was pressed to High Quality CDs, though I’m not sure if the whole audience understood that he was in fact referring to a media format.

Following the interval the ensemble played four songs by Yasunori Mitsuda, who attended the concert in person as a guest. His name should be familiar at least to any who call themselves a fan of Japanese RPGs, as he composed the very highly-regarded soundtracks to Square’s Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. In my opinion, Mitsuda’s work on Chrono Trigger remains one of the finest videogame soundtracks even fifteen years after the game’s release. With that said I was slightly disappointed that Eminence did not play anything from that soundtrack, but as the only disappointment of the night it’s easy to overlook.

The programme was rounded out by four “et ceteras” (as Mr Yura called them), but early in the evening we were promised encores “if [we were] good” and thankfully we must have been good as we were treated to a few encore songs. Throughout the night, Hiroaki Yura spoke directly to the audience about the pieces being played and about Eminence in general. His nature created a relaxed atmosphere within the theatre and his humour provided a nice contrast to the pin-drop silence of the audience during the ensemble’s performances, and overall both Mr Yura and the rest of the ensemble succeeded in creating a memorable night with more than just their music.

Still, it was of course the music that made the concert truly memorable. I was very familiar with most of the songs in the programme already, and to hear those songs played live in such beautiful arrangements was simply amazing and at times very moving. The highlights for me were River from that Day and Always With Me from Spirited Away, Kimi no Koe (Your Voice) from The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Radical Dreamers from Chrono Cross, Thanatos from Evangelion and the playful final encore of the Super Mario medley.

The entire night was a truly captivating experience that I doubt many attendees will soon forget, and one that I’m sure most would love to have again as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it sounds like Eminence is going through some financial issues due to the immense costs of running an orchestra. I hope that they are able to continue sharing such beautiful music with the world, and urge you to support Eminence where you can by going to a show (which I promise is well worth your while anyway) or buying some CDs (also worthwhile). It would be a real shame if a group so talented and unique and Eminence disappeared.

Note: photos and recording were not allowed during the performance so those that you see throughout this review are sourced from other events, though I did manage to find videos that closely resembled the concert you’re reading about here. I had intended to get some materials of my own to share with you, but in hindsight I’m glad I didn’t distract myself from the performance by doing so.

Programme

Main Theme (from My Neighbour Totoro)
Composed by Joe Hisaishi / Arranged by Natsumi Kameoka and Tomoki Miyoshi

River from that Day (from Spirited Away)
Composed by Joe Hisaishi

Always With Me (from Spirited Away)
Composed by Youmi Kimura / Arranged by Hiroaki Yura and Roger Lock

Tokiniwa Mukashino Hanashiwo (from Porco Rosso)
Composed by Tokiko Kato

Teru no Uta (from Tales from Earthsea)
Composed by Tamiya Terashima / Arranged by Tomoki Miyoshi

Memories from Days Far Away (from 5 Centimetres Per Second)
Composed by Tenmon / Arranged by Shiro Hamaguchi

Kanae’s Feelings (from 5 Centimetres Per Second)
Composed by Tenmon / Arranged by Roger Lock

Letter from Mikako (from Voices of a Distant Star)
Composed by Tenmon / Arranged by Akifumi Tada

She and Her Cat Theme (from She and Her Cat)
Composed by Tenmon / Arranged by Akifumi Tada

Sayuri (from The Place Promised In Our Early Days)
Composed by Tenmon / Arranged by Yasunori Iwasaki

Your Voice (from The Place Promised In Our Early Days)
Composed by Tenmon / Arranged by Yasunori Iwasaki

INTERVAL

Hako no Niwa (from Graffiti Kingdom)
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda / Arranged by Tomoki Miyoshi

Circle of Eternity (from Kirite)
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda

The Dream That Time Dreams (from Chrono Cross)
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda / Arranged by Tomoki Miyoshi

Radical Dreamers (from Chrono Cross)
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda / Arranged by Hiroaki Yura and Roger Lock

Canta per Me (from Noir)
Composed by Yuki Kajiura / Arranged by Natsumi Kameoka

Grandpa’s Violin (from .hack//Liminality)
Composed by Yuki Kajiura / Arranged by Natsumi Kameoka

Thanatos (from Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Composed by Shiro Sagisu / Arranged by Natsumi Kameoka

The Song (from Gundam Seed)
Composed by Yuki Kajiura / Arranged by Natsumi Kameoka and Tomoki Miyoshi

ENCORES
(I can’t remember the names of all the encores. If I can, I’ll update this with all the encore details.)