Leave the Games to the Gamers!

Sixth Station Trio members Anju Goto, Katelyn Tan, and Federico Strand Ramirez performing last night at Old First Church (screenshot from the YouTube video feed)

Last night Old First Concerts hosted a return visit from the Sixth Station Trio. The ensemble is a piano trio, all of whose members have had experiences with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). The pianist is Katelyn Tan, who received her Masters degree from SFCM in 2020 and now serves as a staff accompanist there. That same year, violinist Anju Goto completed his SFCM undergraduate degree. Finally, cellist Federico Strand Ramirez holds both a Bachelor of Music and an Advanced Certificate degree from SFCM.

The title of last night’s program was Genshin Impact in concert. Genshin Impact is an action role-playing game, which was first released on September 28, 2020 for Android, iOS, PS4, and Windows platforms. Since that time it has extended to other platforms, and the software is updated regularly. The music was created by a team led by Yu-Peng Chen; and it has received concert performances by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Presumably, this means that Genshin Impact has made a significant impact (so to speak) on the gaming community to a point where they are willing to attend a concert performance of the music emerging from their game consoles.

Sadly, last night did not live up to the expectations of such a concert performance. There was no questioning the skills of all three of the performers, nor was there any doubt that they played perfectly well as a trio. Nevertheless, the music they were playing emerged as little more than consistently bland, engaging at “first contact” but discouraging as the evening progressed. By the time the musicians had advanced to the intermission, I had decided that I had experience enough of what one of my composition professors liked to call “noodling.” There were only so many noodles I could digest before my stomach would begin to revolt!