After the completion of the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra: World Tour last year, composer Yoko Shimomura will be touring the world yet again to celebrate the release of Kingdom Hearts III with Kingdom Hearts Orchestra: World of Tres.
World of Tres is actually the third series of performances put on by Disney Orchestras. The first orchestra was held in three Japanese cities in 2016 and named “Kingdom Hearts Concert: First Breath”. Following on from this was an attempt at a world tour in 2017 that went so well that they organized an encore tour in 2018 with double the performances.
World of Tres will have new video sequences (likely from Kingdom Hearts III) and will feature in new venues such as Paris’ Palais des Congrès and Orlando’s Disney Concert Hall. Hopefully, they’ll also release an album for those that are unable to make it, as they did with the last two tours.
Recently there’s been a lot of excitement for the release of Kingdom Hearts III’s opening theme “Face My Fears” with Utada Hikaru and Skrillex, but it’s hard to deny that Yoko Shimomura’s score has a following that’s just as passionate.
Yoko Shimomura has worked on video game soundtracks for over 30 years and since joining Square (now Square Enix) in 1993 has contributed to some of their top franchises like Super Mario RPG and Kingdom Hearts. Even though she went freelance in 2003, she’s still been invited back to the studio for recent entries to the Kingdom Hearts series as well as the latest Final Fantasy main series entry, Final Fantasy XV.
In an interview in 2002, Shimomura spoke about the immense pressure that came with composing new tracks and arranging classic tunes for a Disney game like Kingdom Hearts. She describes her tracks as wanting to make the player “feel really good like they are in tune with the music as they play the game.” Although there were many challenges, she persisted and admitted that she hates to give up on a challenge.
And 17 years later, tens of thousands of fans will be gathering in concert halls to see all of her efforts pay off yet again. You can find the exact dates of all the performances on this website, kicking off in Tokyo on April 26.