The Intermission Orchestra at UCSD is a student-run organization that plays music from video games, anime, and films. The group was founded in 2015 by four undergraduate music students: David Dong, Dana Marie Chan, Brandon Paulson, and Alex Vargas. Their shared interest in video game and anime music brought them together and they decided to form a student organization
dedicated to playing their favorite music. As for the name, the word "Intermission" in fancy font on a UCSD Music concert program served as a sudden stroke of inspiration.
With that, they and a few other friends arranged some pieces and started recruiting more members in Winter 2016. Early pieces included a The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening medley, "Time" from Inception, "Carrying You" from Castle in the Sky, a Pokémon Gold/Silver medley, and a few others. "In May, we had our first gig performing at the first Triton Gaming Expo," says the group. "By the end of Spring 2016, we had about twenty members and were ready for our very first concert."
"When Fall 2016 rolled around, we doubled in size to about forty members and changed our name to The Intermission Orchestra to reflect our larger ensemble size. We held another concert at the end of Fall 2016 to showcase the pieces we had been practicing during the quarter. Since then, we have continued to prepare a new set of pieces for each quarter, rehearse every week, and show off our members' hard work at our end-of-the-quarter concert. Now, we're also a regular feature at on-campus gaming and anime events."