Music: Joystick Symphony

Map It:  Foggy Bottom 

YOU MAY HAVE thumpin' speakers hooked up to the flat-screen, but when it comes to providing in-your-face sonics for a fragfest, nothing compares to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Master Chorale of Washington in the halls of the Kennedy Center.

Video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall will handle hosting and conducting duties, respectively, when their "Video Games Live" multimedia extravaganza brings "Halo," "Zelda," "Myst," even "Pong" to that highbrow performance space.

It's not that much of a stretch. "I worked on a game called 'Advent Rising,' and we wrote it like [an] Italian opera," Tallarico said.

Technological advances have given composers the disk space to let their imaginations run riot. Where once there were only "bleeps and bloops," today's video game scores look to the classical and semi-classical repertoire for inspiration.

"It's like Beethoven, it's like Strauss, it's like Holst, it's Wagner," Tallarico explained. "You have everything from things that sound like 'Carmina Burana' and [the soundtracks to] 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Star Wars' to things that sound like Barber's 'Adagio for Strings.'"

But "VGL" isn't merely a case of merging Romantic bombast with Information Age visuals. Some pieces call for guitar (courtesy of Tallarico himself) and electronic percussion.

And some call for audience participation. "We bring people up on stage, and they'll play a game while the orchestra's playing the music in real time and changing it on the fly," Tallarico said.

What if the players suck?

"Then it's over quick!"

Before the show, there will be a costume contest. After Saturday's performance, "Civilization" mastermind Sid Meier is doing a meet-and-greet.

If that doesn't get your geeky palms sweating, this will: Each night, two gamers will vie for a Ferrari laptop.

You know what they say — practice, practice, practice.

» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; Fri. & Sat., 7 p.m. (pre-show), 8 p.m.(concert), $25-$45; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)

By Glenn Dixon for Express
Photoillustration courtesy Kennedy Center