Virtuoso is the perfect rainy-day activity for anyone who considers themselves a music buff.

Know your Bach from your Brahms? Your semiquaver from your semibreve? Then a new board game, developed as a graduate project by Caleb Heisey, a student at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, is for you. Virtuoso is a Trivial Pursuit-style game where players answer classical music trivia to advance around an orchestra pit-shaped game board. Described as, “the game of musical proficiency and spiritied competition,” it promises to tax the knowledge of even the most clued-up music buff. 

While Heisey has used a well-known format he has innovated some beautiful touches for this game that will bring a smile to the face of any muso. The game opens with an “audition” round: a rapid-fire quiz that allows players to advance across the board, moving along the “orchestral desks” as players are promoted through the ranks of the ensemble. Questions include trivia about music history and music theory brain-teasers. The playing pieces are modelled on the pegs of a violin, and the dice use time signatures and different duration notes in place of the usual dots and numbers.

Heisey’s design has also sought to replicate the high-level of craftsmanship found in instrument making, and in developing the game the designer worked with a violinmaker to get the look and feel of the wooden game board just right. Throughout its creation Heisey has borrowed from the visual language of string instruments and pianos, as well as the fonts and typefaces of famous sheet music editions.

While this game has a very niche audience, Heisey sees the game as a collectors item, and hopes it might be a useful education tool, making learning about the history of classical music more accessible for youngsters.

Virtuoso is available via the designers website.

Get Limelight's free weekly round-up of music, arts and culture.