Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra Brings Minecraft Redstone Music to the Stage

A classical orchestra in Georgia is swapping traditional sheet music stands for laptops running Minecraft as part of its milestone 20th Anniversary Season. On November 14, the Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra (JCSO) will present the United States premiere of Soundcraft: Symphonic Experience (also billed as Soundcraft: Minecraft in C), a live concert where student gamers trigger in-game redstone instruments alongside professional orchestral musicians.

According to citylifestyle.com, the Soundcraft concept was created by the NON-SENSE Arts Foundation and originally debuted in Seoul in 2023 through a partnership between the TOTAL Museum of Contemporary Art, Arts Council Korea (ARKO), and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The Atlanta edition brings that cross-generational experiment to North Metro Atlanta with support from the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta (MYSO), LOOP, the Mimms Museum of Technology and Art, and the Fulton County Arts & Culture Public Art Futures Lab.

How Redstone Replaces Sheet Music in Terry Riley's In C

The technical core of the concert is a live rendition of Terry Riley's landmark minimalist composition In C. In an interview with artsatl.org, JCSO conductor Henry Cheng explained that the piece is structured around 53 distinct musical cells. Instead of reading those patterns solely from paper, a back line of student gamers with laptops will sit on stage and activate long lines of blocks programmed to represent specific pitches and durations.

As Cheng noted to artsatl.org, stacking different materials—such as wooden boxes or iron doors—around redstone circuits changes the timbre and sound qualities inside the game, allowing builders to orchestrate a complete ensemble. While the laptop performers trigger these digital music boxes in real time, the surrounding Minecraft environment responds visually to the live orchestra, merging sound and image on stage.

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  Redstone BlockPowers the programmed musical circuits on stage.
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  Note BlockProduces individual tones and durations in each cell.
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  Iron DoorCited by Conductor Cheng for altering in-game sound qualities.
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  ChestWooden boxes stacked over circuits to shape instrument tone.

Recruiting Redstone YouTuber JazziiRed

Leading the laptop ensemble is Minecraft content creator JazziiRed, whose real name is Joe Nicholls. Known on YouTube for building intricate in-game musical contraptions and music boxes, JazziiRed will appear in person to direct the student performers—who are divided between Minecraft laptop players and traditional string instrumentalists—alongside professional JCSO members, as detailed by bigtickets.com.

Getting the creator on board took persistence. Cheng told artsatl.org that he spent hours researching the niche community of Minecraft redstone musicians before discovering one of JazziiRed's digital music boxes. After the conductor sent numerous messages to the YouTuber, JazziiRed's own fanbase eventually spotted the outreach and encouraged him to join the symphonic project.

Music and the arts reflect what society cares about right now, and video games offer a way to bring every generation and culture together in one room.

Henry Cheng, Conductor of the Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra (via artsatl.org)

Full Concert Setlist and Pre-Show VR Exhibits

Cheng views video game scores as the natural successor to classic cinema compositions, pointing out to artsatl.org that the orchestra's recent performance of Stravinsky's Firebird suite honoured one of early film's pioneering composers. Beyond the Minecraft centrepiece, bigtickets.com reports that the evening's programme features orchestral arrangements from major gaming franchises, including a 100-person live choir from The Michael O'Neal Singers.

Before the orchestra takes the stage at 7:30 p.m., project producer Joanne Kim—who is Cheng's wife and the founder of the NON-SENSE Arts Foundation—has organised three lobby installations starting at 6:00 p.m. According to artsatl.org and bigtickets.com, attendees can try playable antique consoles curated by the Mimms Museum, step into a full Minecraft virtual reality setup hosted by the Fulton County Futures Lab, and view an installation by Georgia Tech architect and artist Hyojin Kwon.

Furthermore, johnscreeksymphony.org notes that the orchestra's exploration of Terry Riley's In C and Minecraft is part of a broader Education & Community Outreach mission, with an additional student side-by-side performance listed for December 5, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. at Innovation Academy in Alpharetta, GA.

Community Reaction and How to Try Redstone Music Yourself

Across the community and among observers, the reaction to Soundcraft bridges initial scepticism and genuine admiration. As music writer Jordan Owen admitted in artsatl.org, traditional concertgoers and older gamers often struggle to see why younger players build with digital blocks—or how a game can fit onto a symphony stage—until they witness the sheer complexity of JazziiRed's redstone engineering. Meanwhile, followers of JazziiRed's channel were enthusiastic enough about the crossover to actively lobby the creator into answering Cheng's messages, seeing the collaboration as high-art validation for technical Minecraft builders.

If you want to build your own 53-cell redstone music box at home, you can get Minecraft using our Android, iOS, Windows, patched and Java Edition download pages, which cover Bedrock Edition (including Android APK, iOS, Windows GDK, and patched builds) as well as Java Edition via the 9Minecraft wiki. Always back up your existing survival or creative worlds before testing massive redstone clock circuits, as thousands of simultaneous block updates can cause lag or crashes on lower-end devices.