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The text below has been published thanks to the courtesy of FenixDown.

Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy had their most recent performance on December 12th and out of the three Final Fantasy concerts I have attended, this one was by far the best. The Chicagoland Pops and the Elmhurst College Concert Choir performed at the Rosemont Theatre under the guidance of conductor and tour producer, Arnie Roth. Susan Calloway provided her superb vocal skills to four moving pieces. Famed video game composer Nobuo Uematsu was also in attendance, and also displayed his musical prowess on stage during the concert's finale.

Like most good stories, it would be best to start from the beginning. Shortly after arriving at the Rosemont Theatre, I parted ways with my two friends I rode with to reach the concert and had a brief conversation with a young woman with a moogle doll and her boyfriend, the topic primarily revolved around the PSP game Dissidia Final Fantasy. As the doors were opening to allow entry to our seats, I left my fellow fans and found my seat; Section 103, Row 3, Seat 2, the section front and center.

While waiting for the concert to start, I engaged in conversation with the woman seated to my right about what we were most looking forward to. The mention of Dancing Mad caused the guy to my left to say "Kefka beats Sephiroth, am I right?" and I agreed with a fistbump. I continued to chat off and on with my neighbors while taking the occasional picture of cosplayers posing in front of the stage. Nobuo Uematsu himself soon entered the room, escorted to his seat to a standing ovation from the crowd, and I was personally excited that he was seated almost directly behind me (several rows back, but behind me all the same). And then, before I knew it, the concert was about to begin.

Arnie Roth appeared on stage to the applause of the audience and the concert opened with an emotional arrangement of The Prelude. Liberi Fatali was next, the standard opening for the Distant Worlds concerts and was just as powerful as I remembered from the Grand Rapids show. A fitting conbination to open this concert. And to top it off, they followed up their successful opening with the Victory Fanfare.

The music from Final Fantasy VII has always been the main attraction of Distant Worlds shows.The music from Final Fantasy VII has always been the main attraction of Distant Worlds shows.

Afterwards, Arnie talked to the fans, welcoming everyone to the last Distant Worlds concert of the year. And of course, Nobuo-san had to have his big introduction. Not only that, but representatives from Square Enix were also in attendance, which was a pleasant and welcome surprise for many fans, myself included.

To Zanarkand, Don't Be Afraid, and Ronfaure were the next three pieces to be performed. To Zanarkand was as I remembered from my previous concert and was so moving, the piece is at its best when fully orchestrated. Don't Be Afraid was full of action and I still love the usage of the projection screen for this piece, very clever and appropriate. Ronfaure was also well performed and goes to show that you don't need to have played all the games to enjoy the score.