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I was born on September 25, 1987. In my early childhood I wanted to be an animator, but around the age of seven I took interest in music, originally inspired by Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando's soundtrack to the NES classic Kirby's Adventure. I started playing pieces from that and other video game soundtracks by ear, gradually teaching myself to play piano. As kids, my friends and I would often create our own video game and tv show ideas, which I would also write mini-themes for. From there I began making video game MIDIs for Nintendo fan sites, and by the time I'd reached my teens, I was writing full original compositions for my biggest project, Legacy of Magnus. My three primary musical influences are Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Danny Elfman.
Once I'd gotten into high school I became heavily involved in the theatre and music programs (including being a member of a barbershop quartet). As I started my sophomore year, my good friend and mentor Anne Whattoff, the choir director at the time, began commissioning me to write pieces for her advanced chorus, the Chamber Ensemble. Madrigal de Volata was the first of these compositions, which went on to be my first work performed on stage in front of an audience.
The summer prior to my junior year, filmmaker Rocco Botte, who I had known throughout high school, came to me with an idea for a show he wanted me to compose for. I didn't know it then, but the result, Mega64, would become a fairly popular series, selling DVD's worldwide. |
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Photograph by Tande Di-Lanatta |
In addition to the Mega64: Version 1 score, throughout high school I scored two of my friends' short films, Battle for Honor and Death of Dan, as well as two more pieces for the Chamber Ensemble I was now a tenor vocalist in, Veni Creator Spiritus and The Road Not Taken (which was performed at my graduation ceremony in 2005). Soon after graduating, the San Diego Children's Choir commissioned me to write write a piece for their Concert Choir. In May of 2006, they performed Mother at Copley Symphony Hall, with me accompanying on gyil.
For roughly three years I sang as a member of the St. Paul's Cathedral Choirs and took a great deal of interest in liturgical music. I've since written several sacred choral compositions; O Vos Omnes, Sicut Cervus, Ave Maria, Te Lucis Ante Terminum, Ave Regina Caelorum, Salve Regina, Alma Redemptoris Mater, Regina Coeli, and a multi-movement Requiem in F Minor. I've also scored a number of short films, including Tomado Enamorado, An Affair of Hers, Altarations, The Adventure of Ineptitude Man, The Final Hit, and Save Ron Jr.
Currently, I am anglo concertinist and bass vocalist in the pirate band The Dread Crew of Oddwood (under the alias Nathaniel Grizzlejaw), of which I am also co-manager. On occasion, I play keyboards for "synth-onic" rock group Mursic.
My ultimate goal is to become a successful and well-known video game composer. To be able to write music that people enjoy and that tells its own story through each game would be incredibly rewarding. |
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