Born into a musical family on the East Coast, I moved several times around New England before winding up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Throughout my fifteen years there I studied music composition and audio both in school and with a variety of working professionals, as well as performing in and writing for several live ensembles. I began conducting and musical direction for several musical theatre productions, and after a successful run of Chicago in 1995, I founded the Not Affiliated Big Band, which I’m proud to say continues to work long after my departure in 1999.
In 1996, I began working in the video game field as an Audio Producer for Gray Matter, a developer of games for Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn, and PC. This experience led to a position in Austin, TX at Acclaim Entertainment.
While at Acclaim, I composed music for several popular titles, including releases from the Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and All-Star Baseball series. My favorite remains Vexx, a title for Xbox, Playstation 2, and Gamecube. On this project, I got to compose for, direct, and record soloists from the Cincinnati Symphonic Orchestra and the Cincinnati Ballet. The music was a blend of tradition cinematic orchestral styles and contemporary electronica.
In 2000, I was asked to transfer to Acclaim’s newly completed sound studio in Cincinnati, OH, where I produced audio for both in-house and third-party titles; I composed under the direction of Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor, The Incredibles, LOST) for the Alias game adaptation, worked with funk legend Bootsy Collins on the title track for NBA Jam 2004, and composed the score for Christian Gossett’s critically-acclaimed underground graphic novel video game adaptation of The Red Star.
In 2006, I was commissioned by two groups to compose pieces for chamber ensemble, one a fanfare to celebrate Arts York’s 20th Anniversary in Toronto, and the other a short piece to be performed by the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble.
After Acclaim’s bankruptcy in late 2004, I co-founded Creative Audio Associates, focussing on creating content for local commercial media outlets. CAA handled projects from all over the spectrum, from radio to TV, interactive to film.
At this time I also began a teaching position with Cincinnati State Technical College’s recognized Audio/Video program. I continue to teach students the inner workings of Avid’s Pro Tools software.
But my “day job” has been freelance composing for video games. My music is featured in Kings Isle’s Wizard 101, a massively-multiplayer online game with 40 million players, which was voted Best Family MMO of the Decade by Massively.com, Best MMO of 2010 by Beckett Massive Online Gamer Magazine and the #1 Best Family Game of 2009 by MMORPG.com. I also score Kings Isle’s Pirate 101, another wildly successful family-friendly game with over 5 million players.
I was also very pleased to compose the score for Art+Craft Entertainment’s, Crowfall, a genre-redefining online game, and helped them Kickstart the game to the tune of $12M in 2015.
In between ongoing assignments with these titles, I also composed music for mobile games Storybook Brawl, Age of Booty: Tactics, and Hello Kitty Picnic. Gotta switch it up sometimes. (-:
And in that spirit I’ve recently explored other areas of composition, including the ambient scores for SeaWorld San Diego’s Howl-O-Scream in 2022, the 2023 Phoenix Zoo Holiday Lights, and some audio branding projects for some exciting upcoming projects.