Mass Effect 2 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

A crowd of approximately 1,100 people gathered recently in the courtyard  of the Smithsonian American Art Museum to enjoy video game music from a 123-piece University of Maryland Gamer Symphony orchestra.  The performance was part of the museum's dedication to the Video Game as Art series.

Music from Sonic The Hedgehog was featured along with other video game music soundtracks that were showcased during the performance.

The University of Maryland Gamer Symphony Orchestra is made up of non-music

majors but draws a crowd that would rival those of the more traditional type orchestras. The orchestra is composed of  video game players who are avid players as well as staunch fans of video game music themselves.

Journey video game music debuted in top 10 of Billboard soundtrack charts

As evidenced by this orchestra's performance and others, video game music has made its way into the mainstay of culture.  In fact the music from the video game Journey debuted last month at number 8 on Billboard's soundtrack chart, one notch above the latest from "Twilight."

Joel Guttman, student at University of Maryland who plays trombone in the orchestra stated the allure of video game music is the memories players have when they play video games.  And for the non-video game playing music listeners, it's just really beautiful music that anyone can appreciate.