James Hannigan
James Hannigan (born 23 July 1971) is a British composer primarily known for his work in video games, television and audio drama. His credits include entries in the "Harry Potter", "The Lord of the Rings", "Command and Conquer" (including Red Alert 3's well-known Soviet March), "Dead Space", "Warhammer", "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", "RuneScape", "Evil Genius", EA Sports and "Theme Park" video game series, among others. Hannigan's other music credits include scores for Audible's adaptations of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman", the Audie Award winning "Alien" dramas (2016–2019), "Unseen Academicals" (Discworld 37) and  BBC Radio 4's adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s "Good Omens" and Neverwhere. His music is heard in trailers and television shows, such as the BBC's "Top Gear," Amazon's "The Grand Tour," Netflix's "100 Humans" and "Floor Is Lava, Primeval," and Disney's "The World According to Jeff Goldblum." In the early years of his career in the 1990s, Hannigan worked as composer for Electronic Arts Europe before basing his studio at Pinewood Studios in England for ten years between 1997 and 2007, where he sometimes worked as a sound designer on films alongside composing. Hannigan has  posted videos on the subject of his early interactive music system design for titles such as "Republic: The Revolution" (designed by Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis) and entries in the "Theme Park" series of games on YouTube. Screen Music Connect and Game Music Connect. In 2013, James Hannigan founded popular yearly conference 'Game Music Connect' with friend and fellow composer and industry commentator John Broomhall. Held each year at London’s Southbank Centre, the event ran for three years between 2013 and 2015. In 2018, it was announced that James Hannigan had founded a new London-based conference on film , television, game and virtual reality music, to be known as 'Screen Music Connect'. Written publications. In 2004, Hannigan wrote "Changing Our Tune", a cover article for the UK's "Develop" magazine, outlining some of the differences between scoring for games and conventional linear media forms such as film and television. It was the magazine's first audio related cover feature. In 2010, Hannigan was interviewed for Tom Hoover’s book, “Soundtrack Nation: Interviews with Today's Top Professionals in Film, Videogame, and Television Scoring”. In 2015, he wrote a series of articles on video game music for Classic FM. In  2016, Hannigan wrote a foreword for Tim Summer's book, Understanding Video Game Music, published by Cambridge University Press. Public performances. In 2007, a collage of Hannigan's music entitled Welcome to Hogwarts was added to Video Games Live debuting in London at the Royal Festival Hall on 22 October 2007, and featuring the Philharmonia orchestra. On 28 October 2010, a concert of Hannigan's music was held at St. Mary's Church, Nottingham, England. As part of the GameCity 2010 Festival, the concert featured The Pinewood Singers and soloists performing the theme of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows  – Part 1', pieces from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Evil Genius and other titles On 29 June 2012, Hannigan was interviewed in front of a live audience at the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room by presenter Tommy Pearson, as part of the BAFTA Sponsored event 'Conversations With Composers'. The event featured an overview of the composer's work and live performances from soprano, Tamara Zivadinovic. In May 2018, it was announced that there would be a performance of Hannigan's RuneScape music by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at RuneFest 2018. Live recording. Hannigan has worked with the  Philharmonia Orchestra, The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, The Slovak Symphony Orchestra and The Chamber Orchestra of London, recording at Abbey Road Studios, AIR Studios and Skywalker Ranch. The composer is known to be an analogue synthesizer enthusiast. Awards. Hannigan's music scores have been nominated five times by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Hannigan won a BAFTA Award with Electronic Arts in 2000 for "Sim Theme Park (UK title: Theme Park World)". In 2010 his score for the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game received a BAFTA nomination and won an International Film  Music Critics Association (IFMCA) award. In 2014, Hannigan was nominated for a Develop Award for his work on RuneScape. His other BAFTA-nominated scores include those of "", "FA Premier League Manager" and "Evil Genius".