Richard Jacques

**Richard Adrian Jacques** (; born 2 April 1973) is a British multi-award-winning composer of film, television and video game music. Best known for his critically acclaimed orchestral scores for blockbuster franchises such as James Bond 007: Bloodstone, Mass Effect, LittleBigPlanet 2, Alice In Wonderland, Starship Troopers and Headhunter, Jacques has collaborated with numerous premier TV and movie theatre campaigns for some of the world's largest media agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and McCann Ericsson, and some of the best global brands such as Audi, Bacardi, Mercedes-Benz and Stella Artois. His music for television includes top brand shows for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. He is a Fellow of Wells Cathedral School and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Essex.

## Early life

Born in Leamington Spa, England, into a musical family, Jacques was interested in composing from an early age. He wrote his first music achievement, a piano duet, at the age of nine. Richard began studying music at Colchester Institute School of Music and Wells Cathedral School, but he got his primary music education at Royal Academy of Music, where was exposed to a number of instruments and was taught to play in various genres, from jazz to rock. In 1994, Jacques graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition. Two days after his graduation, he was hired as an in-house composer at Sega Europe.

## Career

At Sega Europe, Jacques began by doing soundtracks for a number of Sega Saturn games, most notably jazz, eurodance and powerpop-influenced scores for the Sega Saturn version of *Sonic 3D Blast* (Themes only, score by James Newton Howard) and *Sonic R* (Executive music producer only; score by Marvin Hamlisch). In 2000, he also created the music and interactive radio system for *Metropolis Street Racer*, and composed an additional hip-hop tune for *Jet Set Radio*. Jacques's perhaps best known and acclaimed work at Sega came with 2001's *Headhunter*. Jacques composed it with London Session Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, scoring dramatic orchestral pieces. The soundtrack was well received, won awards, was historically performed at first Symphonic Game Music Concert at Leipzig and became popular entry at Video Games Live event. Jacques left Sega Europe shortly after Headhunter's release and became freelancer, but contributed to soundtracks of sequels of *Headhunter* and *Jet Set Radio Future*, and still composes for titles in *Sonic the Hedgehog* series (with James Newton Howard, Elmer Bernstein, Marvin Hamlisch, Harry Gregson-Williams, Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, Brian Tyler, Mark Mothersbaugh, John Debney, Rupert Gregson-Williams and Alexandre Desplat). Aside from composing video game music, Richard also writes pieces for commercials and Video Games Live. He also composed some of the music in the BBC TV gameshow series, *Don't Scare The Hare*, amongst other shows and films.

## Works

### Video games

* *Darxide* (1995) – with Adam Salkeld
* *F1 Challenge (European ver.)* (1995) – with Adam Salkeld
* *Shinobi X* (1996)
* *Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition* (1996) – with Kenichi Tokoi, Jun Senoue, and Tomonori Sawada
* *Sonic 3D Blast (Sega Saturn)* (1996) – with Elmer Bernstein
* *Sonic R* (1997) – Executive Music Producer only, score by Marvin Hamlisch
* *Jet Set Radio* (2000) – "Everybody Jump Around", score by Mark Mothersbaugh
* *Metropolis Street Racer* (2000)
* *Headhunter* (2001)
* *Jet Set Radio Future* (2002) – "What About The Future" & "Bokfresh"
* *Total Immersion Racing* (2002)
* *Headhunter: Redemption* (2003)
* *OutRun 2 (Xbox)* (2004) – arrangements
* *EyeToy: Play 2* (2004)
* *Starship Troopers* (2005)
* *EyeToy: Play 3* (2005) – with Matt Coldrick
* *Pursuit Force* (2005)
* *Sega Rally 2006* (2006) – "Hand-Breaks" and "TurboTech"
* *OutRun 2006* (2006) – arrangements
* *Battlestations: Midway* (2007)
* *Mass Effect* (2007) – "The Citadel"
* *Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice* (2007) – with Jeff Tymoschuk
* *The Club* (2008) – Single Player themes only
* *Conflict: Denied Ops* (2008)
* *Sega Superstars Tennis* (2008) – with Brian Tyler
* *Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood* (2008) – Main Themes only, score by Ramin Djawadi, Executive Music Produced by Hans Zimmer, additional music and arrangements by Lorne Balfe, Atli Örvarsson, Bobby Tahouri, Clay Duncan and Ryeland Allison
* *Hasbro Family Game Night* (2008)
* *You're in the Movies* (2008)
* *Sonic and the Black Knight* (2009) – with Harry Gregson-Williams and Howard Drossin
* *Battlestations: Pacific* (2009) – with David Kates
* *Alice in Wonderland: An Adventure Beyond the Mirror* (2010) – with Wu Songming
* *Alice in Wonderland* (2010)
* *James Bond 007: Blood Stone* (2010)
* *Fluidity* (2010) – with Allister Brimble and Anthony Putson
* *Fate of the World* (2011)
* *Sonic Generations* (2011) – Special Thanks only, score by Christopher Young, Jamie Christopherson and Marco Beltrami
* *LittleBigPlanet: The Muppets Premium Level Kit* (2012)
* *Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed* (2012) – Special Thanks only; score by Hans Zimmer
* *Alice in Wonderland: A New Champion* (2013)
* *Powerstar Golf* (2013)
* *Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric* (2014) – with Hans Zimmer, Jacques' score arranged and co-produced by Henry Jackman
* *Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal* (2014) – Themes only, with Hans Zimmer; score by Henry Jackman
* *Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice* (2016) – Themes only, with Hans Zimmer; score by John Debney and Rupert Gregson-Williams

### Films

* *Lunnabelle* – directed by Genna Page and Tanya Ludyga
* *One Previous Owner* – directed by Giles Greenwood
* *Three in One* – directed by Mick Pantaleo
* *Scorned* – directed by Sam Noor

## External links

* Richard Jacques's official site
* Richard Jacques discography at MusicBrainz
* Richard Jacques at SoundCloud
* Richard Jacques at Wikipedia
* Richard Jacques at IMDB
* Richard Jacques at RAWG
* Richard Jacques at Mobygames