Her News Notes Magical Moves World Premiere

With Magical Moves, Brent hopes to “empower and inspire a love for chess and music in children of all ages…”

BY ANAN LIU - NORTH GWINNETT MIDDLE SCHOOL
HER LEAGUE MEMBER & HER NEWS COLUMNIST

Have you ever seen anything as brilliant as music describing the moves of a chess game? An inspiring yet original project called Magical Moves has entertained chess newbies and pros alike, highlighting the game of Wesley So vs. Magnus Carlsen in a Chess960 tournament. (To see the world premiere, click here!)

Grandmasters Magnus Carlsen (Norway on left) & Wesley So (USA on right)

In an interview with Her News, Brent Morden, the composer of Magical Moves, said that Magical Moves is an “educational, musical theater work about chess that tells the story of Wesley So’s epic win over Magnus Carlsen at the 2019 Chess960 World Championship.” Characters like Blitzy the Bishop, the Capable Queen, and the Radical Rook have their very own instrument describing them, like a saxophone, a trumpet, a violin, and more.

With Magical Moves, Brent hopes to “empower and inspire a love for chess and music in children of all ages because everybody has a child within themselves, and so we want to tap into that inner child. We want to make people smile and captivate their imagination as they’re drawn into this world of chess piece characters fighting an epic battle with their own personality and their own lessons that they teach us.”

For the world premiere of Magical Moves, a lot of work happened behind the scenes. What you mainly see on the screen are amazing instruments describing chess with beautifully played music, but Magical Moves is much more than what meets the eye. “Even though what you see on YouTube is just a[n] 18-minute musical work that leaves you feeling happy and inspired, there’s 18 months’ worth of work that went into it,” Brent said. “I sent [Don MacKay, who conceived the idea of this project,] drafts of the music and scripts, he sent me feedback... Once the music was written, I had to reach out to music teachers, band directors, and orchestra directors to find students who would audition to play in Magical Moves [...] We had to audition students, review their auditions, write acceptance letters, [and] give them instructions on what to do [...] I reached out to some professional musicians to fill in parts, especially piano, [and] we had an amazing pianist named Ivan Danylets who also edited our video and audio [...] We had a team of audio/video editors, and finally, we would upload it to YouTube.” Simply put, Magical Moves had a lot more going on behind the scenes than you might think.

Altogether, the brilliance of Magical Moves has empowered many chess players to use their imagination, creativity, and taste in music to win the game. Don’t forget to check out their world premiere if you have the chance!