BRIAN LAGUARDIA
Composer, Orchestrator, Arranger
GDC Concert 2026
The annual GDC concert is always one of the highlights of my year, as I get to arrange usually about half of the rep on the program, often consisting of music I haven’t experienced yet, on top of being around legendary people in the industry. But this year was particularly special for me, and not just because the concert itself was full of unusually incredible music.
Austin Wintory has been my mentor and best client for about six or seven years now, and there’s not a day goes by that I’m grateful for that. He’s as kind and generous as he is talented. And there’s no better example of this than what he did this year: not only did he slot in my extremely unknown JRPG score (I didn’t say a thing!), as seen below:
…he also shouted me out in front of 3,000 developers, musicians and legends. I struggle with imposter syndrome so it meant the world to me.
It’s also always such a joy to put charts in front of these amazingly talented and versitile musicians. Rob Kovacs, for example, is our pianist. I can hand him the most heinous, dense part imaginable with very little prep time and it just won’t even phase him. He can also improvise like a seasoned Jazz pro, like he did in Monoco from Expedition 33:
Tom Strahle is a legend that’s worked on all kinds of high-profile things as a session guitarist, and he crushes it just as well on the concert stage, like in his Dispatch solo (Rob providing accompaniment):
Laura Intravia is another superstar featured in this concert. Increidble vocalist who had to learn solos in French and Japanese this year (Tom providing accompaniment for the latter):
She also plays flute/piccolo and, unbeknownst to me until this very year, rocks the EWI, or Electronic Wind Instrument. One of my favorite moments of the whole concert was the Monument Valley 3 segment in the 2025 Medley. Brilliantly composed music and features all the soloists just mentioned, but with the EWI taking the lead (bonus points if you can nail down the time signature):
I had an absolute blast arranging the Expedition 33 suite as well. I didn’t know the first thing about this game or score beforehand, and as soon as I pulled up “Alicia” on YouTube I knew I had to buy the game and experience whatever this was. I was not dissapointed and when I finished my draft, I had Austin pass along my admiration for a truly inspired, emotionally resonant and technically marvelous score. Miraculous, particularly for a first endeavour! I’ll probably do a video about it at some point.
Anyway, I got the “bow wow wow” Monoco sound effect from him and it gets its own little spotlight moment before the wah-wahs in the Trombones amplify it and Kristin Naigus, the swiss army knife of woodwind players, jams on the Alto Sax:
Our brass section was hot shit this year. Austin sprung for a Trumpet player, and he in particular made one of my favorite moments of the 2025 medley soar, South of Midnight:
Even with all that, tho, I think my favorite chart of the night was Dallas’ magnificent DOOM arrangement, with the legendary Darren Korb shredding on Electric Guitar.
This was easily the best GDC of my life and I can’t wait for the next one! Tons of YouTube content about this concert is coming to both Austin’s and my channels in the coming months but in the meantime, here’s the livestream capture!