Inon Zur

Musical Training

Inon Zur was born in Israel. He learnt to play the piano as a child, and composed music by the age of ten. He graduated from the Music Academy of Tel Aviv, and furthered his training at the Dick Grove School of Music and the University of California, Los Angeles. He was then signed to compose music for a few Fox Kids TV shows, including Digimon and Power Rangers.

Stylistic Traits

His style leans towards emotionally dynamic orchestral and symphony scores, and he has even resorted to using novel, ethnic instruments such as the woodwind duduk and Arabic flute. He works closely with the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra from Seattle, and tends to personally conduct their performances. He also cites Sergey Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Beethoven, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and jazz artists like George Gershwin and Henry McFeeny as his musical influences.

He is known for being an efficient composer who tends to craft his work intuitively with the intention of evoking a particular emotion, rather than basing it around the setting in the game. He also has a reputation for being very involved, feeling that it is crucial that he play a game before he can compose music for it, even if it is only a development build.

Work in Video Games

He was hired by Black Isle Studios to write music for Star Trek: Klingon Academy, which was his first job as a composer for video games. He was hired by Black Isle and Interplay for other projects, including fantasy RPG games like Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Icewind Dale II and the last installment of the Fallout series published by Interplay, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. This close working relationship survived that studio's collapse, as he continued to work with them when they reformed as Bioware to compose the soundtracks for Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2.

With his success at Black Isle, many other video game developers begun to hire him as the composer for their games, including THQ and Ubisoft Montreal. He currently resides and works in Los Angeles. He has also displayed a talent for scoring soundtracks, such as the one he crafted for Fallout 3.

His ability and versatility have culminated in him being cited by Music4Games as "one of the A-list orchestral composers in the video games industry".

Accolades

• Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Award, Best Original Instrumental (Men of Valor)
• Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Finalist, Best Original Instrumental (SOCOM II)
• Game Industry News Soundtrack of the Year (Icewind Dale II)
• GameSpy Best Music Awards (Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal)
• G4TV Top Ten Game Soundtracks (Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal)
• Movie Music UK Awards Winner, Best Game Score (Dragon Age: Origins)
• Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Finalist, Music of the Year (Dragon Age: Origins)
• Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Finalist, Best Original Vocal - Pop (Dragon Age: Origins “Lelianna’s Song” & “I Am The One”)
• Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Finalist, Best Soundtrack Album (Dragon Age: Origins)
• Hollywood Music In Media Awards, Winner, Best Original Song (Dragon Age: Origins)
• Hollywood Music In Media Awards, Finalist, Best Original Score (Dragon Age: Origins)
• IGN 2007 Awards Runner Up, Best Original Score (Crysis)
• IGN 2008 Awards Finalist, Best Original Score (Prince of Persia)