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Inon Zur
Award-winning music composer in film, television and video games

Inon Zur

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Award-winning music composer in film, television and video games
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Gender
Male
Place of birth
Israel
Age
58 years
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Inon Zur (Hebrew: ינון צור‎‎, [jiˈnon ˈt͡sur]; born July 4, 1965) is an Israeli-American music composer who has won several awards for his work. Originally writing for movies and television, he later moved into composing for video games. He has been described as being "internationally recognized as one of the A-list orchestral composers in the video games industry". During his career to date, Zur has composed the music to over 50 video games, 15 television shows, and 10 movies, as well as many movie trailers. He has been nominated for numerous awards, and has won three—a Telly Award in 1997 for Best Score on Power Rangers: Turbo, a Game Audio Network Guild award in 2004 for Best Original Instrumental track for Men of Valor, and a Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2009 for Best Original Song – Video Game for Dragon Age: Origins. He currently lives in Encino, California, in the United States, and is composing the scores for several unreleased games.

Biography

Early life

Inon Zur was born in Israel. As early as five years old, he was trying to compose harmonies with his mother's singing, and became inspired by classical music. He learned to play french horn as a child, studied piano by the age of eight, and was studying composition by the age of ten. He graduated from the Music Academy of Tel Aviv, and spent four years in the Israeli military. He emigrated to the United States in 1990 to study at the Dick Grove School of Music for a year, and then under private tutor Jack Smalley, a television music composer, and others for two years at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Career

Zur began his career in 1994 by working on soundtracks for movies, such as Yellow Lotus, featured at the Sundance Film Festival. He then signed on to compose for Fox Family for six years, and made soundtracks for various children's television shows, including Digimon and Power Rangers. By 2002 he estimated that he had composed the soundtrack to over 360 Power Rangers episodes alone. He won his first award during this period in his career, a Telly Award for his work on Power Rangers: Turbo. While he enjoyed the work, he began to want to go work somewhere "more intriguing, more advanced, and basically a place that people really appreciate music more"; his agent overcame his initial reluctance and convinced him to work in the video games industry. His first video game soundtrack was 2000's Star Trek: Klingon Academy, though he started composing for the game in 1997. Zur quickly moved on to prestigious titles, composing for the award-winning and critically acclaimed Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal in 2001 and Icewind Dale II in 2002, among many others. Icewind Dale II earned him the first of many nominations for video game music awards, that of the Game Audio Network Guild's Music of the Year award. He continued to work on movies and television programs during these years, composing the soundtrack to Au Pair in 1999 and the English version of the 2000 anime series Escaflowne.

Zur's latest movie soundtrack to date was that of 2001's Au Pair II. He has worked on a few television series since then; his last traditional television soundtrack was for The Bachelor in 2002, though he has composed music for three webisode series since then. He continued to work on numerous best-selling video games, including Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones in 2005 and Crysis in 2007. He has also garnered several nominations for video game music awards, including his first win, for Men of Valor in the Best Original Instrumental track category of the 2004 Game Audio Network Guild awards. His latest released titles have been the highly successful Fallout 3 and Prince of Persia in 2008, and 2009's Dragon Age: Origins and the Nintendo DS version of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game, and 2015's Fallout 4. He is currently working on the soundtracks to several unreleased video games, and continues to live in Encino, California. Dragon Age has earned Zur his third career award, that of Best Original Song – Video Game in the 2009 Hollywood Music In Media Awards.

Zur penned the original musical score for The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (Warner Bros.) video game, conducting and recording with the London Philharmonia Orchestra and the Pinewood Singers Choir at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London. In an industry first, a dedicated concert of his music from THE LORD OF THE RINGS was performed each evening at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. The one-hour concert series was conducted by Zur and performed by The Hollywood Orchestra and Choir with the participation of The Lyris Quartet and solos from celebrated vocalist Aubrey Ashburn.

Performances

Zur's compositions have been played several times in live concerts. The first of these was a concert held in Seoul, South Korea on May 30, 2006 dedicated to his music for Lineage II: Chronicle V: Oath of Blood. On August 20, 2008, music from his soundtrack to Crysis was played in Leipzig, Germany at a Video Games Live concert. His music from Dragon Age: Origins and Prince of Persia was performed at the September 26, 2009 "A Night in Fantasia 2009" concert in Sydney, Australia by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra. Inon Zur was a special guest at the concert.

Musical style and influences

Zur's compositions frequently are focused on full orchestras, choir and, in some games like Prince of Persia, ethnic instruments like Arabic flutes and the woodwind duduk. He has often collaborated with the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra from Seattle, though he has on occasion used other orchestras. Whenever Zur works with a real orchestra, he always conducts it himself. He has named some of his musical influences as classical artists such as Sergey Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Beethoven, movie composers like John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, and jazz artists like George Gershwin and Henry McFeeny. While he would one day like to compose music not intended to be part of a larger piece of media, he finds that the pressure of a deadline and the feedback from the developers are crucial in his development process. He feels that his music sounds best when it is in the context given by the media it was made for, though he feels that performances of the music by itself transforms it "from just a soundtrack to an art form on its own". Zur sometimes collaborates with other musicians while composing his game soundtracks; for example, he worked with Florence and the Machine to create a unique rendition of "I’m Not Calling You A Liar" for the Dragon Age II soundtrack.

Zur typically is brought in to compose for a game once it is mostly complete, though he notes that that is earlier than for films and television—where nothing changes after he starts besides post-production effects—making video game music composition a more "flexible" process. He finds that it is "crucial" for him to play a game before he can compose music for it, even if it only a development version. Rather than compose music based around the setting in the game where it will be played, Zur composes music around the emotion that he wants the player to feel at that point in the game. While he feels that music composition technology has come far enough in recent years to no longer be a limiting factor in his music, he does feel that the music budgets for games limit what he can create. Zur feels that he is considered in the industry to be a very fast composer, which he attributes to his tendency to compose music "intuitively", rather than spending a lot of time planning it out. When not composing, Zur likes to play video games, especially those he has composed for, as well as play basketball and spend time with his family. The types of projects that he would like to work on in the future that he has not yet done are children's games and soundtracks incorporating jazz music.

Works

Films

TitleYearNotes
Yellow Lotus1995
Ashes1997
The Refugee1998
Rusty: A Dog's Tale1998
Escaflowne2000
Power Rangers in 3D: Triple Force2000
Harold Hancock: Life in Light2000
Reclaim2014
Welcome to Forever2015

Television

TitleYearNotes
Valley of the Dolls1994
The Vision of Escaflowne1996English dub
Big Bad Beetleborgs1996–1998
Power Rangers Turbo1997
Ramadhan in Indonesia1998
Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog1998–1999
Au Pair1999Television film
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot1999–2001
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy1999
St. Patrick: The Irish Legend2000
Final Ascent2000
Au Pair II2001Television film
Power Rangers Time Force2001

Video games

TitleYearNotes
Star Trek: Klingon Academy2000
Star Trek: New Worlds2000
Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War2000
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel2001
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal2001
Star Trek: Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates2001
Icewind Dale II2002
War and Peace: 1796–18152002
Run Like Hell2002
Lineage II2003
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader2003
SOCOM II2003
Champions of Norrath2004
Syberia II2004
Crusader Kings2004
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury2004
Men of Valor2004
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within2004Cinematic scoring
Champions: Return to Arms2005
Combat: Task Force 1212005
Twisted Metal: Head-On2005
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones2005
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows2005
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow2006
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts2007
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja2007
Crysis2007
Fallout 32008
Prince of Persia2008
Dragon Age: Origins2009
James Cameron's Avatar: The Game2009Nintendo DS version
Ace Combat: Joint Assault2010
Fallout: New Vegas2010
Rift2011
Dragon Age II2011
TERA2011
Thor: God of Thunder2011
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North2011
Soulcalibur V2012
Dragon's Dogma2012
Guardians of Middle-earth2012
Fantasia: Music Evolved2014
Fallout 42015
Sword Coast Legends2015
Hero's Song2016Early access version
Eagle Flight2016
Syberia III2017
Arena of FateTBA

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryWorkResult
1997Telly AwardBest ScorePower Rangers: TurboWon
2002Game Audio Network GuildMusic of the YearIcewind Dale IINominated
2003Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Instrumental SongSOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALS – "Main Theme"Nominated
2004Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Instrumental SongMen of Valor – "Main Theme"Won
Game Audio Network GuildBest Live Performance RecordingMen of ValorNominated
Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Soundtrack AlbumMen of ValorNominated
Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Soundtrack AlbumShadow Ops: Red MercuryNominated
2006Canadian Awards for the Electronic & Animated ArtsBest Original Musical ScoreWarhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark CrusadeNominated
2007IGN Best of 2007 AwardsBest Original Score (PC)CrysisRunner-up
2008British Academy of Film and Television ArtsBest Original ScoreFallout 3Nominated
Spike Video Game AwardsBest Original ScoreFallout 3Nominated
Golden Joystick AwardSoundtrack of the YearFallout 3Nominated
Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Vocal – ChoralPrince of Persia – "Menu Theme"Nominated
Game Audio Network GuildBest Original InstrumentalPrince of Persia – "Healed Land"Nominated
IGN Best of 2008 AwardsBest Original ScorePrince of PersiaNominated
2009Hollywood Music In Media AwardBest Original Song – Video GameDragon Age: Origins – "I Am the One"Won
Hollywood Music In Media AwardBest Original Score – Video GameDragon Age: OriginsNominated
Game Audio Network GuildMusic of the YearDragon Age: OriginsNominated
Game Audio Network GuildBest Soundtrack AlbumDragon Age: OriginsNominated
Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Vocal - PopDragon Age: Origins – "I Am the One" (High Fantasy Version)Nominated
Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Vocal - PopDragon Age: Origins – "Lelianna's Song"Nominated
2011Hollywood Music In Media AwardBest Original Score – Video GameDragon Age IINominated
Hollywood Music In Media AwardBest Original Song – Video GameDragon Age II – "Rogue Heart"Nominated
Spike Video Game AwardsBest Song In A GameDragon Age II – "I’m Not Calling You A Liar"Nominated
2012Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Vocal - PopDragon Age II – "Rogue Heart"Nominated
2015Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Song - PopSword Coast Legends – "The Path Of Destiny"Nominated
Hollywood Music In Media AwardBest Original Song – Video GameSword Coast Legends – "The Path Of Destiny"Nominated
Audio Network Guild AwardsVocal Theme – Video GameSword Coast Legends – "The Path Of Destiny"Nominated

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
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