There’s this strange misconception that art can only come from preapproved spaces and groups that respect canon and tradition. Classical music is all about Chopin and Beethoven. Opera should mainly cover the classics such las La Traviata and Il Trovatore. This type of thinking even affects how certain music aficionados look at more contemporary work. It’s either the old ways or, well, the old ways. Now imagine throwing a giant wrench at that in the form of video game and anime music concerts, complete with orchestral arrangements and gameplay/anime episodes playing in the background. This is what The Town Hall’s artistic director Melay Araya has brought to New York’s historic events space. And her vision is already paving the way for a very diverse and daring future.
Under Araya, the Town Hall has opened its stage to some of pop culture’s most popular musical scores. Stardew Valley, Final Fantasy, Cowboy Bebop, and most recently Shovel Knight have all gotten the orchestral treatment (some with electric guitars thrown into the mix). These shows don’t just give the pop culture communities they represent their due recognition. They also become statements on art and how much wider our net should be when it comes to welcoming more expressions of it in places often reserved for so-called “high art.”
Araya, who has also worked as an archivist and as an actor herself, hopes to invite more insight into the music world with an eye to shed more light on the benefits of inclusivity rather than exclusivity regarding the type of shows the Hall should be open to. For instance, upcoming programming includes a Tokyo Ghoul and a Lord of the Rings concert along with a full jazz concert led by legendary composer and songwriter Yoko Kanno, with selections from her Cowboy Bebop work.
It all points to the creation of something special. Under Araya’s leadership, pop culture and media music is finding a very welcoming home at the Hall, one that is on its way to adding a strong new branch to its already impressive legacy. To a point, it’s an open challenge to the art world. Embrace the culture, embrace nerdom, embrace the disruption. Beautiful things can sprout from it.
The Beat sat down with Araya to talk video games, anime, and movies, and what it means to honor the different forms of art that converge to create the experiences we love and cherish. It follows below.
RICARDO SERRANO: The Town Hall’s vision, so to speak, is that it is a “Hall for all.” How do video game music concerts fit within that frame?
MELAY ARAYA: The idea came to me via my own love of anime music. I’m not a huge gamer, though I like gaming music, but I think this journey for me, started with wanting to celebrate Cowboy Bebop’s 25th anniversary. So we did that with a special concert and it was awesome and fun. Getting into that and looking at media music in general, it got me thinking in video game music.
Some of the most interesting composers are going towards gaming and anime, and the numbers are growing. For me, it was about saying “let’s take this seriously.” If Japanese and American companies are paying amazing artists to make amazing music, then why shouldn’t we give them the space to showcase their work? This music accompanies people in their daily lives. There’s so much emotional attachment there. It was very apparent at the Cowboy Bebop concert, which for some was their first instrumental concert. Knowing we’re getting people to try out different things because of what we have on offer is very exciting to me.
SERRANO: Have you seen an overlap in audiences as a result of these pop culture events? Do fans of classical music carry over to video game concerts and vice versa?
ARAYA: We’ve had some repeat visitors who came in through one of our first concerts, the music of Stardew Valley, and then found out about the Hall and stayed on for the long run. But we’ve found that classical music folks enjoy these video game concerts as well, which wasn’t that outlandish of an idea to begin with.
I remember convincing a relative that’s all about season tickets for concerts at The Met, with a bit of a snobby streak here and there, to come out for our Final Fantasy concert. She was so impressed with the music because she could appreciate it had a more classical style than even some of the more contemporary stuff coming out. She couldn’t believe it was made for a video game. It was interesting seeing this from her perspective, especially hearing her talk about how accessible the music was, in addition to how similar it was to what she already knew.
SERRANO: The Town Hall seems to promote a sense of versatility in terms of its offerings that is truly outstanding. Just before the Shovel Knight concert, you had a chamber opera show taking on the famous James Baldwin and William F. Buckley debate titled The Tongue & The Lash and A Return to Civil Discourse. And that’s on top of comedy shows, journalist conversations, and musician spotlights. How do all these different shows challenge, perhaps, the art world in terms of what it can do?
ARAYA: The Town Hall is split between visiting presenters and The Town Hall Presents program, which is what I work on. I think there’s often overlap, with some presenters fitting our program and vice versa. For example, Philip Glass debuted at the town hall 50 years ago. We just celebrated this last year. While The Hall held a host of events focused on Glass, we went with his movie scores. We made sure that it was a part of the celebration. This shows how versatile we are here and how many avenues exist to accommodate all kinds of music and performances.
I would say that expanding that sort of serious concert music canon is our goal. And it’s not just with media music. It’s also with genres. Two years ago, we did a tribute to Twinkie Clark, who is considered the greatest living gospel composer and writer. Gospel, as a whole, doesn’t really get done in a lot of venues here in New York, even though it’s one of the most popular acts of all time. She’s a genius and having her perform on our stage is as important to us as celebrating Cowboy Bebop with a full-on concert. Again, it’s all about expanding the canon and creating experiences that can’t be seen anywhere else.
It’s also about creating things that other people can nerd out to. And if people call it niche, it doesn’t upset me. There are enough nerds out there for this.
SERRANO: Is there a type of concept, form, sound, or historical interest that you think deserves a bigger presence at the Town Hall? Something you’d like to explore more of, like the Gospel music you spoke about.
ARAYA: Well, the acoustics for the human voice in our Hall are just out of this world. Operas, for instance, sound better than anything else could in it. It’s just made for speaking and singing, and of course, that works well for acoustic music and everything else. My dream is to get a vocal series together that really celebrates the human voice and the different types of singing around the world. And not just Western classical or American pop.
Another big thing that I’ve been working on and hope to have the ball rolling on in the next couple of seasons is a focus on girlhood. Look, I grew up loving The Beatles and boy bands in general. But I came to realize that without teenage girls you wouldn’t even have The White Album, right? It’s teenage girls who brought them to the US, their fiery demand for them.
It’s about the different ways that girls express themselves, especially in terms of how they use their deep love of the different arts to be creative themselves. That’s a concept I’ve been trying to develop over the last couple of years. I’m hoping that in the next two years it’ll really come to fruition. It would include anime, cozy games, fanfic, and girl groups. It’s large, wide-ranging, and very exciting.
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