Thomas Böcker


Thomas Böcker is an award-winning German entrepreneur. He is most known for his Game Concerts series, initiated in 2003 as Symphonic Game Music Concerts, historical for being the longest running and the first of their kind outside Japan. He produced the first live performance of video game music by the London Symphony Orchestra, and was presented with the national Cultural and Creative Pilots Award by the German Federal Government, which recognises outstanding entrepreneurs within Germany’s cultural and creative industries.

Early life

Thomas Böcker spent his childhood growing up in the small mountain town of Lauenstein. Coming from a family of teachers, he developed an appreciation for Classical music from a young age and regularly attended symphonic concerts. Like many others in Europe, he grew up playing the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga computers. Soon enough, he developed a passion for video game music and became especially fond of Chris Huelsbeck’s works on the Turrican series. Böcker’s love for both video game music and Classical artists would soon come together, as he realised the potential for scores and concerts to feature orchestral game music.

Concert productions

In 2003, Thomas Böcker produced the opening ceremony of the Leipzig Games Convention with the First Symphonic Game Music Concert. The event at the sold-out Gewandhaus concert hall was the first of its kind outside Japan and received ten minutes of standing ovations. His annual follow-up concerts gained even more popular and critical appraise with their numerous innovations, expansive programs, refined performances, and special guest appearances. In conjunction with this work, he brought orchestral game music around the world with leading roles on the highly successful concert tours PLAY! A Video Game Symphony and . He also inspired the use of game music for educational purposes, through creating the series of school concerts Heroes of our Imagination in 2006, with Super Mario Galaxy – A Musical Adventure being its latest instalment in 2010.
Thomas Böcker has since developed a long-standing relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and WDR Radio Orchestra in Cologne. This culminated in the best-selling concert performances Symphonic Fantasies – music from Square Enix, LEGENDS - music from Nintendo and the Final Symphony concerts. As a world's first, Böcker’s productions have been broadcast live to radio listeners worldwide by the WDR and have even been enjoyed internationally through live video streams. In 2012, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performed two Symphonic Fantasies concerts at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert hall in Tokyo, Japan, produced by Thomas Böcker, with more than 4,600 people in attendance.
In May 2012, Thomas Böcker announced his tenth major concert production entitled Final Symphony, featuring music from Final Fantasy VI, VII and X. The world premiere of the performance took place on May 11, 2013 and was presented by the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal. Another performance of the concert took place on May 30, 2013: The first live performance of video game music by the London Symphony Orchestra. Final Symphony had follow-up performances in Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, the USA, New Zealand, China, Austria and Australia.
Final Symphony Tokyo was the first video game music concert ever to be greeted with standing ovations in Japan.
In March 2015, Final Symphony II saw its first announcement. Featuring music from Final Fantasy V, VIII, IX and XIII, the world premiere took place on August 29, 2015, presented by the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, followed by four performances in September and October 2015 by the London Symphony Orchestra in London, Osaka and twice in Yokohama. The performances in Japan marked the first time a foreign orchestra ever performed a video game concert in Japan.
Next to concerts in Germany, the UK and Japan, Final Symphony II also got presented in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. Final Symphony and Final Symphony II mark Thomas Böcker's most successful concert productions to date.

Orchestra recordings

Beyond game music concerts, Thomas Böcker is the creative mind behind the Merregnon project, a series of albums that tell a fantasy story through music. With their legendary composers, rich performances, and elaborate presentation, these albums have proved influential in East and West alike. Böcker has also accepted executive roles on numerous other album productions, including the Amiga’s Immortal series, Masashi Hamauzu’s Vielen Dank, Yoko Shimomura’s drammatica as well as Chris Huelsbeck's two live orchestra albums featuring music from the Turrican series. He has also supervised the studio recordings of the concerts Distant Worlds and Distant Worlds II.
On December 13, 2014, Final Symphony the album was announced. Produced by Thomas Böcker, the album is based on the sell-out Final Symphony concert tour, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra in the presence of composer Nobuo Uematsu at Abbey Road Studios. Before the album's release part of it was broadcast by the UK radio station Classic FM.
Thomas Böcker has been extensively involved in studio recordings of game music scores. He has attended the recording sessions of numerous Eastern and Western game scores. In addition, his own artists at Merregnon Studios have been commissioned to compose and arrange for titles such as THQ’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Namco Bandai’s Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record U.C. 0081 and Mobile Suit Gundam: Side Stories, Sega’s World Club Championship Football and Capcom's Dragon's Dogma.
The producer currently represents Merregnon Studios' award-winning composer and arranger Jonne Valtonen on a range of score and concert productions.

Major concerts