This UBC PhD student is fulfilling her fantasy, one note and one game at a time

The girl’s got game. And music pulsing through her veins.

Put them together and you’ve got ludomusicology, a relatively recent academic area of study connecting video gaming and accompanying musical scores in which UBC school of music student Marina Gallagher is pursuing her PhD.

How cool is that to combine two of your life’s passions?

“I’ve been studying piano since I was four,” the 28-year-old Waterloo, Ont., native said. “And I grew up listening to a lot of music. My mom always made sure I had music on at home.”

But along with playing piano, and later cello and guitar, she grew up watching her father play video games.