About Us

Who We Are

The Game Brass is a group of seven musicians from all walks of life. They have backgrounds in game scoring, film orchestration, YouTube, education, and session work for rock and rap musicians. Each one an expert in a different field, and they’re brought together by their shared love of video game music, their senses of humor, and their incredible chops.

In biweekly videos, unique albums, and frequent collaborations with other great artists, The Game Brass strives to bring the discipline of classical training to the VGM world, and the joy of video game music to the classical world.

Hi, We're The Game Brass

John Robert Matz

Trumpet, Piccolo Trumpet

John Robert Matz is a Chicago-based performer, arranger, composer, and music educator. Classically trained, he graduated with honors from Elmhurst College. His scores are diverse, including work on the BAFTA-nominated puzzle-platformer Gunpoint, the cult classic Artemis: The Spaceship Bridge Simulator, the naturalistic sounds of Fossil Echo, and the neo-Baroque of Kickstarter darling Ambition: A Minuet in Power. He’s also scored the record-breaking Facebook TV show Rival Speak and Devolver Digital’s annual E3 showcases. His work has garnered four awards from the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) and “Best Game Audio” from the Indie Prize, as well a nomination nod from the ASCAP Composers Choice Awards. As a performer, he’s sung as an operatic tenor in Carnegie Hall and Chicago’s Symphony Center, performing in concert and on an album for the Final Fantasy “Distant Worlds” orchestral performances. Because he doesn’t feel quite busy enough with these endeavors, John Robert also performs in numerous ensembles as a trumpet player, teaches classical voice, and performs voiceover work for games with his robust, timeless tenor.

Robby Duguay

Trumpet, Flugelhorn

Robby Duguay is a game composer based in Toronto, Canada and the creative director of Level Curve, a six-person, full-service audio studio that has worked on music, sound design, implementation, and more for dozens of shipped games for mobile, web, consoles, and VR. Robby’s composition style is dynamic and varied, drawing from the visuals and stories of his projects to find the sonic world that suits them best. His work includes Agence, Graceful Explosion Machine, Fate Tectonics, The World of Peppa Pig, and We Are Doomed. Robby is also an educator, teaching Digital Sound for Games at Sheridan College. He credits his love for crafting game music to long hours spent in JRPGs and his technical music background to his time studying at Arts Canterbury in Ottawa. Today, Robby spends much of his time working with local organizations that further his passion for fostering a positive, respectful, and diverse community for game developers.

John Stacy

French Horn

Based out of Midland, Texas, JohnStacy is a composer, arranger, and prolific session musician. He earned a bachelor’s and master’s in music composition and music education at West Texas A&M under BJ Brooks (composition) and Guglielmo Manfredi (Horn). A passionate educator, JohnStacy has served as head band director at Clarendon Independent School District, and assistant director at Hereford ISD. Johnstacy’s experience is as broad as it is deep, his classical training informing his performance everywhere, even in the jazz fusion he loves to perform. As one of the standout horn performers in the video game music world, JohnStacy has contributed recordings to dozens of projects, with several new ones on the horizon. His recent work includes the Lone Star Consoul album with Consoul Big Band and John Paul Hayward’s Generations: A Symphonic Tale. Recent soundtrack recordings include Zach Abramson’s Second Extinction, Sin Chronicle for Kevin Penkin, Nabeel Ansari’s Code Tycoon, and Andrew Luers’s Legend of Tangledeep. He has also contributed to Mason Lieberman’s charity collaboration singles, and to the Mortal Kombat 11 score. JohnStacy is comfortable playing just about every brass instrument out there, but he’s particularly driven by his love of the horn, and delights in getting to play the instrument in settings where people don’t expect it. When you have a jazz or rock album that needs a horn, he’s the first person to call.

Daniel Romberger

Trombone

Daniel Romberger is a composer, trombonist, and theremin player. In fact, he can play just about anything without a fixed pitch. If you need a crackerjack whistler, he’ll be there. He fell in love with music composition at age 15, when he started arranging video game music cover tunes in Mario Paint Composer. While his composition skills may have matured a little since then, his sense of joy and wonderment at how music fits together never went away. Daniel’s greatest joy is working with live musicians; his original music has been performed by ensembles such as ECM Plus, the Momenta String Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, the M&J Big Band, and others. He has recently begun scoring work, crafting music for the Zeldathon gaming marathons that have raised $2.8 million for charity. He contributed a theme for their mascot, Finn the Otter, and has written several other tunes used in their broadcasts. He has also arranged VGM covers for those Zeldathon events, for The Game Brass, for his YouTube Channel dannymusic, and elsewhere. Daniel is currently plugging away at an operetta, and spends his scarce free time playing the A Link to the Past randomizer.

Alex Hill

Tuba

Alex Hill is a tubist who records, teaches, and gigs from his home base in Richmond, Virginia. He received a Bachelor’s in Music Education from Tennessee Tech University, where he studied with R. Winston Morris and performed at Carnegie Hall with the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble. He received his Masters in Music Performance from Illinois State University, studying under Dr. Andrew Rummel and recorded two albums with the Illinois State Wind Symphony. Alex’s recording work includes performances for Scott the Woz’s 200th episode special, Devolver Digital’s annual E3 short films, guest spots with DiscoCactus, and many independent orchestral albums for arrangers like John Paul Hayward. Alex is passionate about the tuba. On his YouTube channel, TankTopTuba, and on his electronic music project Kaijuba, Alex makes a point of showing off everything the instrument is capable of, hoping to expand people’s understanding of the instrument. Alex is also an educator, teaching low brass students around RVA and Washington, D.C., and a performer for several bands and orchestras throughout the area.

Thomas Kresge

Arranger, Conductor

Thomas Kresge is a composer, arranger, orchestrator, copyist, saxophonist, and educator with credits spanning film, television, video games, musical theater, and live concerts. Based in New York, he earned his Bachelor’s at George Mason University before receiving his Master’s of Film Scoring at the Seattle Film Institute under Hummie Mann. Thomas has deep experience in orchestration, arranging, and music preparation. His speed and reliability have made him a favorite among his clients, which include Marco Beltrami (Waiting for the Barbarians, Shadows in My Eyes, Nine Perfect Strangers, Bach by Beltrami), Diana Ross (Diana Ross Live at the Hollywood Bowl: Opening Night, 2018, NBC's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting), Michael James Scott, Disney (The Incredibles 2 trailer campaign), Jacob Yoffee (Kohl's trailer campaign), and others, as well as fully arranging the scores for the musicals Way Back When and Esther. Since 2018, he has served as The Game Brass’s primary arranger and producer. Well-versed in writing orchestral, jazz, and popular music, Kresge’s work has been heard in indie films, games, orchestras, and more, with two new game projects on the way. Somehow, Kresge also finds time to work as an educator, teaching piano, winds, trumpet, theory, and composition. Working with a wide variety of organizations, Thomas seeks to empower students with the skills they need, from sight-reading to improvisation. Thomas dedicates the rest of his time to cooking, cocktail mixology, and dreaming of the day he’ll adopt a cat.