A new musical ensemble has officially been created on campus for the start of the new semester.
The KSC Video Game Ensemble, as described by the ensemble’s president and first-year student Matthew Derouin, focuses on learning and performing student-chosen pieces of music from video games.
Derouin said the group’s history started in the fall 2024 semester with a music workshop class taught by Dr. Christina Wright-Ivanova that allowed music majors to perform.
Wright-Ivanova, who is the faculty mentor for the new ensemble, said she was approached last semester by senior Korben Robinson with the idea of dedicating a workshop concert to a performance of video game music. Wright-Ivanova said a small group that included Derouin was able to get together and perform. After that performance, according to Wright-Ivanova, Robinson decided not to continue with the group and Derouin took over with the goal of creating an official ensemble.
“They performed and they did such a great job that everybody loved it and they wanted to keep it going,” Wright-Ivanova said. “[Derouin] stepped up and he did a lot of work over the winter break to make this an official club.”
Derouin said the group’s goals moving forward included continuing to grow and perform.
“We are going to be choosing our own music at the start of each semester,” Derouin said. “I’m hoping for 15 songs based on the different music of video games, and every Sunday we would get together and practice and hopefully at the end of the semester we will be able to perform all the music.”
Derouin continued, “All new ensembles start out small and over time they grow, so we are hoping that over the following semesters and even years after we leave, people would continue this and have it grow into an ensemble size that could rival that of the concert band here.”
Derouin also talked about his decision to allow any student to join the ensemble, saying, “I decided to open it to all students on campus, so that it’s not just the music majors who are showing off to everyone. I would like everyone to be able to experience something musical in their lives.”
First-year student and ensemble Vice President William Horne, who was one of the ensemble’s original members last semester, spoke about why he feels it is important to highlight video game music.
“Video game music is surprisingly complex,” Horne said. “The composers for that are insanely talented and have incredibly complicated and cool scores that are quite iconic for a lot of people. I don’t know how other people feel, but I prefer to play music that I know.”
Horne encouraged interested students to join the ensemble, citing the opportunity of freedom within the group.
“If you have a piece of music from a game that you like and you tell us about it, we’ll heavily consider playing it,” Horne said.
“There’s not an audition process,” Horne continued. “If you’re not the greatest at an instrument, we don’t mind. We’re glad to have someone who plays to join, that would be fantastic.”
Justin Dearborn can be contacted at
