This year’s Game Awards had a few surprises that could only have come from a live event—Chris Judge did absolutely nothing wrong (opens in new tab) and gave it from the gut, and a teenager snuck on stage and took the mic (opens in new tab) at the end of the night to say something inscrutable from Discord. A third figure has emerged from the crucible of December 8, 2022: Pedro Eustache, a world-class flautist who left it all on the court during The Game Awards’ musical medley celebrating the Game of the Year nominees.
As The Game Awards Orchestra did their thing, the camera people taking a live feed of the event couldn’t help but linger on Eustache, who was extremely lively and animated as he played. Eustache also demonstrated notable virtuosity in his performance, switching instruments multiple times during the medley.
At the 44 second mark in IGN’s video (opens in new tab) of the sequence, Eustache is tooting on a smaller, black woodwind. Only 10 seconds later, in a wider crowd shot, you can observe him swapping to a large, curved flute, and by God, by 1:11 he’s already playing a different instrument!
The YouTube comments are full of praise for Eustache, and Twitter was awash with praise for the “Flute Guy.” Indeed, people have already made fan art (opens in new tab) and video tributes (opens in new tab) for Eustache. The artist himself responded to the attention with a short video (opens in new tab). “Hi, this is Pedro Eustache, you guys know me as ‘Flute Guy,'” He begins.
“I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your absolutely amazing response all over social media after The Game Awards last night. God bless you.”
– #FluteGuy here: Thanks for your amazing response after @GameAwards. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!.- Gracias por su bellísima respuesta GAME AWARDS. Bendiciones!- Merci pour votre formidable réponse aux GAME AWARDS. Soyez benis.#GameAwards #FluteGuy #PositiveLiving #GodBlessYou pic.twitter.com/La7WdSlcCkDecember 9, 2022
Eustache’s Game Awards performance was only the latest stop in a long and storied career. The Venezuelan-born artist has collaborated with the likes of Paul McCartney, John Williams, and Hans Zimmer. Noclip documentarian Danny O’Dwyer (opens in new tab) pointed out that Eustache appeared in a series of interviews (opens in new tab) with Zimmer on the making of the soundtrack for 2021’s Dune. If you crave more Flute Guy, you can read more about Pedro Eustache and his work on the artist’s website (opens in new tab).
