I’m afraid I really was not aware of composer, conductor and record producer Arnie Roth.

If you have little girls who love Barbie, check out the credits on the Barbie movie series like “Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper,” “Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses,” “Barbie in Rapunzel,” “Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus,” “Barbie and the Diamond Castle” and “Barbie in the Island Princess.” You’ll find Roth’s name -- he conducted the music.

He’s well known in the classical music field as a composer and producer.

Yet in recent years, he’s gaining more attention as a conductor, especially with gamers.

What?

With the permission of video game maker Square Enix, he works with symphony orchestras to play music from the “Final Fantasy” video role-playing game. I thought there were three or four versions of this game. Oh, no. There are 14. Yup. The latest release was “Final Fantasty XIV” in 2010.

The very first “Final Fantasy” game was released in 1987.

Roth and “Final Fantasy” composer Nobuo Uematsu will be in Atlanta Friday and Saturday with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the “Distant Worlds: Music from ‘Final Fantasy’” concert in Atlanta’s Symphony Hall.

I spoke to Roth a few weeks ago, just before he left for a short concert tour of Australia.

He said he’s performed with the ASO both in Symphony Hall and in the Chastain Park Amphitheater.

“I work with a lot of great ones (orchestras) and Atlanta has one of the great ones,” he said. He enjoys working in the hall as well as outdoors, though the technical support is usually better indoors with the videos he shows with the music.

A friend told him 2004 that orchestras were playing video game scores in Japan to sold-out audiences. He said, “Why can’t it work here in the United States,” Roth remembers.

So he got the score and did the concert with the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, of which he is the conductor.

To his surprise, that first concert sold 4,000 tickets.

“That was an eye-opener for a lot of people,” Roth said.

That was in 2005, and Roth did a short tour of “Dear Friends.”

“Square Enix only allowed us to do a very small number of these concerts,” he said. “Atlanta was one of the lucky ones to secure a date.”

This weekend will be Roth’s first trip back to Atlanta with the new tour, “Distant Worlds.” Earlier this year, he signed a three-year contract to continue doing these concerts. This time, the tour is more extensive and includes music from all 14 versions of “Final Fantasy.”

“Nobuo Uematsu is coming to Atlanta with us,” Roth said. “This is really exciting.”

He said Uematsu score is reminiscent of Richard Wagner, with his use of leitmotifs (thematic passages of music to describe a certain feeling or a character).

“He had the brilliant idea of using leitmotifs,” Roth said. “After 23 years of fans hearing these chocobo variations, they become quite married to the music of ‘Final Fantasy.’”

And you’d better believe “Final Fantasy” fans show up, Roth said. For the Atlanta concerts, he’s heard that fans from Maryland and Virginia will be coming to the shows.

“A different kind of audience will come to Symphony Hall” because of the music from “Final Fantasy,” Roth said. The trick is to get them to come back for a classical music concert.

But he feels this is a way to build a young audience and let them hear familiar music in an orchestral situation.

And orchestras around the world have begun the embrace these types of music programs.

In November, Roth has sold out the Royal Albert Hall in London already.