Bill Brown (composer)

Bill Brown IV (born 1969 in San Diego, California) is an American composer.

Biography

Bill Brown began his career composing powerful scores for triple-A game titles, including Tom Clancy's 'Rainbow Six' and 'Ghost Recon', Clive Barker's 'Undying', 'Return to Castle Wolfenstein', 'Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle' and 'Command & Conquer: Generals'. Bill also contributed additional music to the hit films 'Any Given Sunday', 'Ali', and 'Finding Forrester', scored television films including 'Scorcher' (CineTel/HBO) and 'Trapped' (USA Network), and he is currently the composer for the hit CBS television series, CSI:NY.

In 1991, Bill graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree that included study in jazz theory and composition, song writing, modern theory and orchestration and finally the art of film composition, a passion of his inspired years earlier hearing the scores of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Barry. During his time in Boston, Bill found inspiration in the music of modern composers like Paul Hindemith, Shostakovich, Bartok, Pendereki and English composer Ralph Vaughn Williams, studying 20th century harmony, orchestration and techniques which would find their way into his orchestral compositions later. Bill's passion for electonics and sound design began with analog tape and programming classic synths back in the 80's and continues today with ever-evolving new technologies at the composer's LA studio. While at Berklee, Brown began to experiement with both song form, winning the Berklee Songwriter's contest in 1990, and more purely experimental approaches inspired by Steve Reich, John Adams, and the chromatisicm of Schoernberg, Berg, Harris and Ligeti writing music for small ensembles and electronics throughout and beyond his five years in Boston before moving back to New York, and eventually to Hollywood, CA.

In the past ten years, Bill has composed music in varying degrees for directors and producers including Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Interactive ("The Lost World: Trespasser"), Oliver Stone ("Any Given Sunday"), Michael Mann ("Ali"), Clive Barker ("Clive Barker's Undying"), Michael Crichton ("Timeline"-VG), and writer/producer Tom Clancy on his hit game series "Rainbow Six" and "Ghost Recon". Building on the success of his scores for games, television and films, his music and career continue to expand into new territory.

Bill's scores have been nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, L.A. Weekly, and G.A.N.G., and have won awards from the ITVA, and BMI as well as the Music4Games Editor's Choice award. He is represented by Randy Gerston at First Artists Management.

Career

Brown has composed and produced music for many films, such as "Any Given Sunday", "Ali" and "Finding Forrester". He has also scored music for television films like "Scorcher" and "Trapped". He has composed music for numerous video games, including first-person shooters like Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six" series and "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", role-playing games like ', and real-time strategy games like ', as also the background music in Microsoft's Windows XP operating system's welcome tour.

He has also composed music for directors and producers, including Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Clive Barker, Michael Crichton, Gus Van Sant, Michael Mann and Tom Clancy.

As of June 2005, he is the composer for the CBS television series, .

In 2005 Brown started his own company, Bill Brown Music, Inc. He lives in Los Angeles, California and is represented by [http://www.firstartistsmgmt.com/ First Artists Management] .

Composer

Video games

*"Anachronox" (2001)
*"" (2003)
*"" (2003)
*" (2006) - Compilation which included his work
*"" (1998)
*"" (2003)
*"Michael Crichton's Timeline (PC)" (2000)
*"" (2001)
*"Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six" (1998)
*"" (2003)
*"Return to Castle Wolfenstein" (2001)
*"Shadow Watch" (2000)
*"" (2005)
*"The Sum of All Fears" (2002)
*"Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" (2001)
*"" (2002)
*"" (2004)
*"" (1999)
*"Undying" (2001)
*"" (2003)

Videos

*"Evil Deeds" (2004)
*"Lady Death" (2004)
*"" (2001)

Television

*"" (2004) (TV series)
*"Trapped" (2001) (TV film)

Film

*"Ali" (2001) (songs "Round 8 Strings," "Prequel Strings")
*"Any Given Sunday" (1999) (songs "Sharks' Theme," "Spiritual," "Rock the Sharks")
*"Scorcher" (2002)
*"War of the Angels" (1999)

Awards

*BMI 2005 TV Music Award for "CSI:NY" Season 1
*ITVA Golden Reel GOLD Award for Kennedy Space Center "Gateway to the Universe" soundtrack
*Music4Games - M4G Editor's Choice Award for "The Sum of All Fears" (PC)
*Best Music Award - PCXL Magazine's 1998 All-Star Awards for "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six"

Nominations

*Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.G.) 2003 Awards Nominee for "Lineage II: the Chaotic Chronicle" (NCSoft), in the following categories: Best Live Performance Recording, Best Cinematic / Cut-Scene Audio, Best Original Vocal Song - Choral
*British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) 2003 Games Awards Nominee in the Music category: "Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War"
*British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) 2003 Games Awards Nominee in the Music category: "Command and Conquer: Generals"
*Golden Reel Nominee: Feature Film "Ali" (Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment)
*Golden Reel Nominee: Feature Film "Any Given Sunday" (Warner Bros.)
*British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) 2001 Interactive Entertainment Award Nominee in the Music category: "Clive Barker's Undying"
*Best Original Music Nominee by L.A. Weekly: Blue Sphere Alliance's live theatrical production "Nagasaki Dust"
*Golden Reel Nominee: "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (Renaissance Pictures/Universal)
*Golden Reel Nominee: "In the Presence of Mine Enemies" (Showtime Pictures)

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0113119/ Bill Brown at the Internet Movie Database]

References

* [http://www.billbrownmusic.com/ Bill Brown's official website]
* [http://www.billbrownmusic.com/bio.htm Bill Brown biography]
* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/284/bill-brown/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
* [http://www.vgmrush.com/artist.php?id=59 Profile at VGM Rush]