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David Westerlund is an independent concert arranger and music teacher. He currently is a lecturer at his alma mater, the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, where he teaches students about video game music. But despite this immersion in academia, David has a breadth of real world experience, both as a musician and a producer. He has written and produced three full-length musicals, several solo albums in both the modern classical and pop/rock genres, and a variety of works for theatre, TV and radio.

As a producer, David draws upon his passion for game music. He organized a handful of game music concerts for Swedish fans, such as “An Evening of Music from FINAL FANTASY VI-X” (March 27th 2009 at the Royal College of Music) and FINAL FANTASY on TOUR (during the summer of 2009). After the success of these shows, the producer has taken it one step further – his newest project, the Castlevania Symphonic Concert, is a novel, exciting, and groundbreaking endeavor. When David announced the event, which will take place in Stockholm on February 19th 2010, all eyes of the game music world were on him. For the first time ever, there was to be a videogame concert entirely dedicated to the amazing music of the Castlevania series. The game’s themes would be performed by a symphony orchestra, a grand organ, and many singers, while the show itself would be visually spectacular, featuring special effects and other spellbinding attractions! Take a look at our interview with David to find out more about the upcoming unholy evening in Sweden, where an entire concert hall will transform into Dracula’s Castle for one fateful night.

 
Interview Team (GameMusic.net, Innerworld.pl and Castlevania.innerworld.pl): As we learned from your biography, you were first exposed to Castlevania through the NES games. From that time on, you’ve been a big fan. What attracted you to the series?

David Westerlund: The music and the challenge! The soundtrack was so well made, I didn´t mind repeating the later stages, over and over again.

 
Interview Team: How big of a challenge was it to organize the Castlevania concert – a show planned on such a large scale? Was it tough to bring Michiru Yamane from Japan to Sweden for the performance? Can you tell us about any interesting experiences you’ve had during the event’s production? 

David: Bringing Michiru along was actually one of the first steps I took at the start of this project. I already knew that she was an excellent live performer, so I was really interested in asking her to perform something. To my great joy, she agreed. It’s so rare and interesting to hear composers perform their own music, and certainly it will be more fun - both for us and for her, as she will be participating in the concert, rather than just listening.