THE 8-BIT BIG BAND to Perform at Miller Theater

Ensemble Arts Philly and MGP Live continue its Jazz Series with a performance by The 8-Bit Big Band, the multi-GRAMMY Award-winning symphonic jazz orchestra known for transforming video game soundtracks into large-ensemble jazz works. The group takes the Miller Theater stage on October 24, 2026 at 8pm.

Founded and led by composer, arranger, and conductor Charlie Rosen, The 8-Bit Big Band was created to reexamine some of video gaming's most recognizable music, rearranging it in ways that push past the source material's original limitations. Rosen describes the ongoing project as an effort to build what he calls "The Great Video Game Songbook," treating melodies once confined to background loops as material worthy of serious large-ensemble arrangement.

Since forming in 2017 with the debut album Press Start, the band has released a string of records that trace its growth, including Choose Your Character in 2018, Backwards Compatible in 2022, and Game Changer in 2023. Backwards Compatible earned the band its first GRAMMY Award, for Rosen and Jake Silverman's arrangement of "Meta Knight's Revenge." The band's most recent album, Orchestrator Emulator, brought a second GRAMMY Award earlier this year: Rosen, Bryan Carter, and Matthew Whitaker won Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for "Super Mario Praise Break," a gospel-inflected arrangement built from themes across the Super Mario catalog. A sixth album is currently in progress, with release planned for next year.

The ensemble has built an audience well beyond the jazz world, drawing close to half a million social media followers and millions of YouTube views, and regularly selling out venues. Its work has drawn attention from The New York Times, Forbes, and Jazziz, the latter noting that the group is redefining the concept of a modern big band.