AWR Music Productions IS PROUD TO present Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY, the official symphonIC concert tour.
Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY
AWR Music Productions is proud to present the legendary and official symphonic concert experience Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY.
Celebrating the iconic music from throughout the FINAL FANTASY series from I - XVI, Distant Worlds features the music of the great FINAL FANTASY composers: Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yoko Shimomura, Masayoshi Soken, and more.
Revered Maestro Arnie Roth directs a symphony orchestra, choir, and outstanding soloists in this zenith of multimedia concerts. With fresh HD video projections from SQUARE ENIX, an ever-expanding repertoire, and an extraordinary multi-generational community of FINAL FANTASY music lovers, Distant Worlds has trail-blazed a path of unforgettable performances since 2007.
Our Exceptional Legacy
The first successful orchestra concert of Nobuo Uematsu’s music was delivered in Japan by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and featured music from FINAL FANTASY I & II. In 2004, the first successful FINAL FANTASY music tour launched in a six-city tour of Japan: Tour de Japon: Music from Final Fantasy.
Under Music Director Arnie Roth, who was then the conductor of the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, the 2005 U.S. concert tour Dear Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY was the first fully open-to-the-public concert production that featured the music of FINAL FANTASY outside Japan. This culminated in a More Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY performance in Los Angeles that same year.
In 2006, the Voices: music from FINAL FANTASY concert took place in Yokohama, Japan. This performance featured premieres, guest soloists, and Uematsu’s band The Black Mages along with The Prima Vista orchestra and choir once again under the direction of Arnie Roth.
In 2007, Nobuo Uematsu and Arnie Roth co-founded the Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy concert series. This initiative would become one of the very first of its kind and develop into one of the most beloved and enduring video game concert franchises in history.
Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY had its premiere performance in Stockholm, Sweden in 2007 and has since given over 250 sold-out performances globally in the world’s most prestigious venues including the Tokyo International Forum and London’s Royal Albert Hall (where, in 2011, we became the first video game concert production to perform there)!
The achievements of Distant Worlds have been pivotal in the recognition of video game music as an insurmountable cultural force. This was certainly true in 2018 when Distant Worlds became the first video game concert production to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall under the baton of Maestro Roth. These historic sold-out concerts were attended by visionary composers Nobuo Uematsu and Yoko Shimomura and the extraordinary community of FINAL FANTASY music lovers.
In addition to the ongoing worldwide concert tour, there have been seven highly acclaimed CD releases (with 2025’s Distant Worlds VII celebrating the music of FINAL FANTASY XIV and XVI composed by Masayoshi Soken!) and three live concert DVD/Blu-ray releases. We are looking forward to our 20th anniversary in 2027, which will coincide with the 40th anniversary of FINAL FANTASY!
Arnie Roth
Music Director Arnie Roth is a Grammy-winning artist known for his work with world-class performers including Andrea Bocelli, Peter Cetera, Charlotte Church, Art Garfunkel, Il Divo, The Irish Tenors, Jewel, Mannheim Steamroller, Branford Marsalis, Luciano Pavarotti, Linda Rondstadt, Diana Ross, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Rod Stewart. Roth has conducted many of the most renowned orchestras of the world including the London Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Czech National Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, and the Sydney Symphony.
Maestro Roth is a legend in the world of video game music for his work with Nobuo Uematsu and SQUARE ENIX as music director and conductor of the global phenomenon Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY and its predecessors Dear Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY, More Friends: music from FINAL FANTASY, and VOICES: music from FINAL FANTASY. He is also the Music Director of other great SQUARE ENIX tours including the NieR:Orchestra Concert series.
As a composer, Arnie Roth was the winner of the Best Score Award at the 2003 DVD Premier Awards for his score for the film Barbie™ as Rapunzel and was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for his original song “Shine” from the movie Barbie™ in The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Roth has produced dozens of best selling CD’s. For more information, visit www.awrmusic.com.
Eric Roth
Associate Music Director Eric Roth is recognized internationally as a composer/conductor, orchestrator/arranger, and producer of concerts and recordings. His orchestrations and arrangements for Distant Worlds have been performed by many world-class orchestras and ensembles. Eric is also the music director and chief arranger for A New World: intimate music from FINAL FANTASY, the chamber ensemble concert production, now in its second decade.
Starting in 2024, Eric has been the conductor for NieR:Orchestra Concert 1 2 0 2 4 [ the end of data ] in global venues as well as one of the conductors for the ambitious and far-reaching FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH Orchestra World Tour. Previously, Eric was the conductor of the orchestra for The Beach Boys’ unprecedented Holiday Vibrations Tour in 2022 and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s historic Strings Attached orchestra tour in 2019.
Eric was the conductor for the once-in-a-lifetime Surprise, Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular! concert at the United Center in Chicago with a roster of performers which included Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle, Usher, Kristin Chenoweth, Jamie Foxx, and Josh Groban. He has also worked as a conductor on projects with Five for Fighting, Seal, Jewel, Dennis DeYoung and Stevie Nicks, and has had the great fortune to have directed many prominent symphony orchestras and ensembles around the world.
For more information, visit www.awrmusic.com.
AWR Music Productions
AWR Music Productions is a multi-dimensional music production company that produces incredible concerts all over the world through its global tours for orchestra, choir, soloists, and multimedia elements; tours for chamber music ensembles; its stellar recordings and other live performance experiences.
For more information, see The Official AWR Music Website.
About Square Enix Co., Ltd.
SQUARE ENIX is the internationally renowned video game developer of beloved and iconic franchises, including the NieR series, the FINAL FANTASY series, the DRAGON QUEST series, and an incredible array of games and other output. Their philosophy is “to spread happiness across the globe by providing unforgettable experiences.”
For more information, see The Official SQUARE ENIX Website.