Below is a little more information about tomorrow's guest speaker (even more detail is available at www.austinwintory.com)
Austin Wintory began his obsession with composing back when he was ten years old, when he discovered Jerry Goldsmiths scores to Patton and A Patch of Blue. After a busy high school career composing for the student orchestras, Austin went on to study at NYU and USC with composers Morten Lauridsen, Charles Fussell, and Erica Muhl. Never satisfied with working in a single medium, Austin has worked in the concert world, film music, video games, and miscellaneous others.
In March 2012, the PlayStation3 game Journey was released, after three years of work. The game instantly became Sonys fastest-selling PlayStation title, and the soundtrack album debuted on the Billboard charts higher than any original score in gaming history. In December 2012, more history was made when it was announced that Journey had become the first-ever Grammy-nominated videogame score. The score subsequently won an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences D.I.C.E. award, two British Academy Awards, a Spike TV VGA, and IGNs Overall Music of the Year, along with six G.A.N.G. nominations and host of others. The score features the Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra and a lineup of top soloists (Audio excerpts available here). Orchestral excerpts, and the stand alone mini-concerto Woven Variations are currently scheduled for concert performance all over the world.
Austins previous PlayStation3 game, flOw, made him the youngest composer to ever receive a British Academy Award nomination, and also won him a wide variety of other game industry accolades including the Game Audio Network Guilds Rookie of the Year. This music, originally entirely electronic and deeply interactive, was re-conceived as an orchestral work which has seen several performances including at the Smithsonian Museum as a part of their Art of Games exhibit which opened in spring 2012. flOw is also currently on display at Manhattans Museum of Modern Art.
Outside of games, Austin is also very busy working in films and composing / conducting for the concert stage. The Boulder Symphony named Austin their Composer in Residence in 2011, first premiering the award-winning orchestral/choral work Gray Rain.
Austin has also scored over 40 feature films, and his first major film score, for the Sundance Film Festival-winning film Captain Abu Raed, was shortlisted for the 2009 Academy Awards for Best Original Score. Shortly afterward, the Hollywood Reporter named Austin One of 15 Composers Primed to Join the A-List. His next major film, Grace, was also a hit at the Sundance Film Festival. Austins score (which featured a wild array of custom-recorded sounds such as babies crying and horse flies, in addition to a large ensemble of clarinets at Londons famed Abbey Road Studios), was also highly lauded, earning a notorious Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination and being cited by Visions in Sound (a popular film scoring radio program) as among the Top 10 Scores for 2010.
Passionate about education, Austin is a regular public speaker at schools and events around the world, in addition to pre-concert talks and workshops. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the non-profit Education Through Music Los Angeles (www.etmla.org).
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Lego, Cav (the Lego brand name was derived from the Danish expression "leg godt" - play well - and lego also translates in Latin as "I study" or "I put together"...really, one of the world's most perfect words!)
