http://www.otakon.com/guests_music.asp#Eminence

Eminence, the successful VGM concert from Australia, will be coming to Otakon.

Eminence are...
Special Guest:     Hitoshi Sakimoto
Piano:     Kumiko Ito
Violin:     Hiroaki Yura
Violin:     Kenny Kao
Viola:     Andrew Marciniak
Cello:     Minah Cho

Ooo-la-la, I'm going!

~jb

Figures the one year I decide to skip Otakon, something like this comes.

Then again, I'd have a clear shot at Sakimoto, right in my back yard, so I might reconsider...;p

"Clear shot"?

Use your imagination. ;p

*faints*

Okay, I'm driving downtown to form a line NOW.

I did and I'm shocked because I like Sakimoto... = /

Let me put it this way...Not every day I find out one of my sworn life enemies comes within an hour of where I live. I may have to relish this opportunity...Nah, it probably isn't worth the bullet. Maybe if I go, I'll cosplay as a character with a sword and when no one's looking...*shlink*

I was half-expecting something like this, considering Otakon normally gets high-profile music guests each year and the amount of VGM concerts has been ramped up.

That's odd...I thought Eminence was much bigger than that. I thought they were more like a full orchestra.

Don't mind. He is indeed the biggest Sakimoto fan, since everytime I read his post, he talks about Sakimoto. I remember reading his "Sakimoto generally sucks except for BoF 5 and some of blah blah blah" statement dozens of times in every VGM forum, and we'll end up reading hundreds of it *shudder*

Seriously though, in terms of promotion, Mitsuda, who I believe is also easy for Eminence to take to US, is obviously preferable to Sakimoto. People are never tired of talking with how Time's Scar is incredible. Will Mitsuda is too busy with his DS game project and CC arranged album?

He explained it. I also prefer an orchestra to a strings quartet + piano, yet better half an egg than an empty shell. I wish I could attend thier Yokohama concert.

Damn, I posted that dozens of times? Go me. And I thought consistancy between opinions when discussions about a composer arised counted for something *shrug* I didn't even put that here and I probably haven't done it in awhile, since I never listen to BoF 5 anymore, but whatever works. It's all good. The comedic effect of the irony of Sakimoto coming to an event I attend on a yearly basis and coming all the way from Japan to a location that is less than an hour away from one of his sworn enemies has clearly been misinterpretted.

Incidentally, who the hell are you? 'Cedille' isn't even registered at any of the boards I frequent.

My love of Sakimoto aside, as far as promotion goes, the amount of viable composers for US stuff like this would be really limited. Sakimoto makes the most sense, considering FFXII and maybe Odin Sphere. Uematsu has name brand recognition as does Mitsuda, but neither have put much out recently that's of any relevence to games in the US. Kondo has some value as a legend. The rest would probably be US VGM composers or someone like Kanno or Otani, who aren't primarily game composers. So considering the weak position of VGM in the US right now, this is a good overall choice. I guess.

Edit: "I wish we have the $$$$$$$ to go to the states..." - Seraph (from the post you linked me to)

Sorry, I don't follow Eminence enough to care about them. So they're primarily the small list of guys listed for Otakon and not the orchestra I've heard about? I don't really understand their set-up.

From a pure financial perspective, it would be somewhat of a suicide to shift an entire 50 piece + orchestra to a completely foreign country with no player history, hence why the small setup.

Yes, I understand that (especially since I know Otakon runs on a tight budget, so I bet they'd try to keep expenses as low as possible...Normally, their music guests are either a single performer or a 4-5 member band, so travel expenses probably aren't too bad)...What I meant was are the people that are coming basically the "core" of the group? Is everyone else who isn't coming not considered part of Eminence normally (like just studio/extra performers)?

I see. Well, generally, Eminence has two limited list of core players, though Yura is the only defined clore player going in this event. Ito, up until the US concert, will have played in 2 other Eminence concert series, so I don't if that really constitues. The rest are new, as far as I know, but all have studied at the same music school.

It's odd that this isn't announced on Sakimoto's U.S. website that Cocoebiz is hosting.   Did this negotiation take place outside of Cocoebiz's scope?

Currently, the person who updates Sakimoto (and the other websites, outside a few) is currently on holiday and has no time to update. But rest assure, it will be attended to later.

I talked to Kahori at Cocoebiz.  This appearance was arranged separately.  Cocoebiz had no part in this.