Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991                   TAG: 9103010454
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

PIANIST GOT BABY GRAND AS MS. PAC-MAN'S SONGWRITER

Even if you've never set foot inside a concert hall, you've heard Patricia Goodson's music.

Goodson, a concert pianist, performs regularly with such classy outfits as the Harvard Group for New Music and Musicians from Wall Street, a chamber music consortium out of Concord, N.H.

But the reason it's a sure bet you've heard Ms. Goodson's music is because of Ms. Pac-Man.

Goodson has written music and sound effects for dozens of video games. She says the money she earned from her design of the Ms. Pac-Man cartridge paid for her treasured baby grand Steinway piano.

While working for a company that designed Atari products, Goodson was in charge of overseeing the music and sound effects for such games as Asteroids, Pac-Man and Battle Zone.

Although she may feel a tinge of nostalgia when she passes an arcade, Goodson, 34, now devotes her full attention to classical music.

Currently, she is on a tour of North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia. She will stop in Blacksburg for one performance Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Virginia Tech's Donaldson Brown Auditorium.

It's not just luck that Blacksburg is on her itinerary, either. Her uncle, Charles Forbes, is vice president of development and university relations at Virginia Tech.

"Her father and brother are both Tech graduates," Forbes said, "so the family has an interest in this university."

Goodson, a native of Newport, is a graduate of Duke University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. She is a music tutor and chamber music instructor at Harvard University.

Forbes said he has never attended one of his niece's concerts. He was living in New York while Goodson was performing and receiving her training in Baltimore.

"I've never been in the same place where I could hear her perform," he said. "I'm looking forward to this concert myself."

Goodson will play at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Donaldson Brown Auditorium. Admission is free and the guest artist recital, sponsored by Virginia Tech's Department of Music, is open to the public. For more information, call 231-5200.