Welcome to another of our continuing special series of film, TV and video game composer interviews on the CINEMATIC SOUND RADIO PODCAST NETWORK. On the program today, film and video game composer, Austin Wintory.
Austin grew up in Denver and from the age of 10 was utterly addicted to film music. After teaching himself to compose, orchestrate and conduct in high school, he went on to study classically at NYU and USC. Following a whirlwind education in which he scored well over 150 student and small independent productions, he graduated and began working full-time in Los Angeles.
In 2012, Austin’s soundtrack for the hit PlayStation3 game JOURNEY became the first-ever Grammy-nominated videogame score, also winning two British Academy Awards, a DICE Award, a Spike TV VGA, and IGN’s “Overall Music of the Year,” along with five Game Audio Network Guild awards, and a host of others. Excerpts from the score have been performed all over the world since its release, including by such ensembles as the National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Colorado Symphony and Pacific Symphony.
Austin’s score for FLOW made him the youngest composer ever to receive a British Academy Award nomination and also won him a wide variety of other game industry accolades. An orchestral version of this music has been performed at the Smithsonian Museum as a part of their “Art of Games” exhibit.
Austin has also scored nearly 50 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 by the LA Times. His next major film, GRACE, was also a hit at the Sundance Film Festival. Austin’s score, was also highly lauded, earning a notorious Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination. His most recent films are writer/director Adam Alleca’s STANDOFF, starring Thomas Jane and Laurence Fishburne, and Amin Matalqa’s THE RENDEZVOUS, starring Stana Katic.
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, as well as the Board of Directors for the Society of Composers and Lyricists.
In March 2021 for the CINEMATIC SOUND RADIO PODCAST NETWORK, via Zoom, Jason Drury had the pleasure of talking to Austin Wintory.
In part one of this two-part interview, they talked extensively about his work on video games and how he chooses assignments as well as playing samples of his wonderful music.
Enjoy!
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