Inspiring Musicians
Direct inspiration for other musicians' careers and musical education
“Games and music have always been two of my main passions... Once I saw video game pianist Martin Leung play a Super Mario medley blindfolded around 2004, I realized playing the music from video games on the piano was totally possible. After that, I started practicing video game music on the piano vigorously, most notably, the Final Fantasy Piano Collections, and various Nintendo series.”
“It was not until I came across a video online of someone who called himself the Video Game Pianist... I then got into playing classical music, as well, and went on to get degrees in music and piano performance.”
“One of the people who got me really excited about playing video game music in the first place, his name is Martin Leung, and he is also known as the video game pianist... He’s the guy that you find on the Internet - he blindfolds himself, and he plays ‘Mario’ blindfolded.”
Won "Who Will Be the Next Martin Leung?" international competition (October 2009) and performed with Martin Leung at Palais des Congrès, Paris during Video Games Live world tour. Credited Martin Leung's work as direct inspiration for their YouTube success and artistic direction.
— Yume Duo (Johan Veron & Jean-Vianney Zenati, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon)
“McGaughey, who started studying piano at age 12, was not very interested at first... Through the Video Game Pianist, who was and still is a fantastic classical pianist, I discovered the music of Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin and Felix Mendelssohn...”
“I don’t exaggerate when I say that this [Super Mario Medley] video managed almost single-handedly to alter my entire view of the piano... it was the first time I ever took pleasure in playing the piano.”
