IMPORTANT CANCELLATION UPDATE
Today’s (Sunday April 2nd at 3:00 PM) 88bit concert has unfortunately been cancelled.
We’ve had to make this decision due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control. Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience.
Any ticket holders should check your email for a message with more details.
We hope you’ll return to the Maltz Center soon for one of our many other great concerts, including this Friday April 7 at 7:30PM for É.T.É.
Classic video game music performed as a piano concerto--88bit appeals to the gamer and kid in all of us, performing virtuosic note-for-note piano arrangements of the vintage Super Nintendo and other classic video game system soundtracks that you know and love, along with musical selections from some of the newer video games that your children are probably playing today.
88bit is the alter ego of Cleveland-based pianist, composer and recording artist, Rob Kovacs, one of the only pianists in the world to publicly perform some of these early game soundtracks outside of the games they were released in. Kovacs stretches the limit of traditional classical piano playing by acoustically recreating early electronic music that was never intended to be performed by humans, bringing these time-honored tunes to a whole new audience.
Kovacs has been recording and performing as 88bit since 2017, and has performed at major events such as GDC, the Game Audio Network Guild Awards, PAX, MAGFest, the Mensa National Gathering, NeoSonic Fest, Classic Game Fest and many others. He has performed music by and for legendary video game composers including David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) and Takashi Tateishi (Mega Man 2), whose respective series have sold millions of copies worldwide.
Not limiting himself to only 8-bit era music, Kovacs also performed with the Distant Worlds Final Fantasy orchestra and has collaborated with other artists including nerdcore rapper, Mega Ran, YouTuber 8-Bit Music Theory, and many others. Outside of 88bit, Kovacs is an award-winning composer, pianist and recording artist. He is internationally recognized as the first person to perform a solo version of Steve Reich’s Piano Phase by playing both piano parts on two pianos simultaneously. Additionally, Kovacs has composed music for American Greetings’ e-cards, several award-winning short films, and the recently released virtual reality game, STRAYLIGHT.
88bit - 2022 Game Audio Network Guild Music of the Year Medley