Webhallen Orchestra is unique. It’s the world’s first computer game orchestra. The&Partnership & Swedish gaming and tech retailer, Webhallen, created a computer game in which every action made by a player creates a tone or sequence in a melody. When a group of gamers play, the result is a stirring piece of classical music.

The world’s first classical music piece, created to be performed by gamers, was performed at the Oscar Theatre in Stockholm, where twenty-three gamers formed an orchestra under the direction of the composer behind the piece, Max Kiusalaas.

“We know that gamers have fast reaction abilities. Still, there are a lot of prejudices about gaming being something for children or a waste of time. By putting gaming in a traditionally ‘high culture’ setting, we were able to show that good gamers are like good musicians – creators who spent a huge amount of time and energy towards becoming the technically most skilled in their genre. As with musicians, there’s pride in showing off your abilities in gaming. That’s something we want to highlight and endorse, explained Filippa Modig, press officer at Webhallen.

The piece was performed on PlayStation 5, Xbox X, PC, laptops, RetroFlag NESPi 4 and Nintendo Switch. The game is built on Unreal Engine. Each platform equaled an instrument group and each action a tone in the music piece.

“In this experiment, the game becomes the instrument and the gamers our musicians. A classically educated musician has incredible hand-to-eye coordination, so it was interesting to see whether a gamer could measure up to that,” stated Max Kiusalaas, conductor and composer in Webhallen Orchestra.

Credits:

Agency: The&Partnership
Creative Director: Timo Orre
Art Director: Olle Dahlqvist
Copywriter: Hanna Adelstål
Client Director: Anders Kinberg
Account Manager: Jessica Stiller
Media Strategy: Fredrik Pettersson
Media Planner: Tine Lolland