Nobuo Uematsu

If you've ever played a Final Fantasy game you might know who Nobuo Uematsu is, or at least you're familiar with his music. Nobuo Uematsu has been the composer for the Final Fantasy series since the original Final Fantasy was released in 1987.
His scoring for the series has been appreciated by fans for years, but recently Uematsu has recieved musical acclaim from the music scene outside of video games. For example he was named one of the "Innovators" in Time Magazine's "Time 100: The Next Wave - Music" feature. He has toured with his music and an orchestra in Japan extensively and has played dates in America as well, recently playing in Chicago.
While previously Nobuo composed over 40 songs for each game, currently his inclusion on Final Fantasy soundtracks has deminished. On the upcoming Final Fantasy 12 Nobuo only composed one piece.
Recently however Nobuo left Square-Enix, the makers of the Final Fantasy series, to form his own studio called "Smile Please". No one knows whether or not he will still write for the Final Fantasy series.

Well onto the music, I prefer the piano renditions of his work, so that's what I'll put up.
First one is the Final Fantasy 7 theme, I really like this song. Very beautiful song, in my opinion.
Final Fantasy 7 - Main Theme
Second is from Final Fantasy 8, my favourite Final Fantasy. Definately my favourite Final Fantasy song too.
Final Fantasy 8 - Balamb Garden
Then there's the magic that is the Chocobo theme song.
Odeka ke Chocobo