Bear McCreary Summer Projects

BEAR MCCREARY ANNOUNCES SLATE OF SUMMER RELEASES AND APPEARANCES

Summer Projects Include Play for Japan, World Premiere Performances in Spain, and New Audio and Video Recordings

(Los Angeles, CA – June 2, 2011) Composer Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, The Cape, Battlestar Galactica) thinks globally with his summer vacation. McCreary has contributed a new track to the Play For Japan benefit album, is conducting two performances of his music at the 7th International Film Music Festival Ciudad de Úbeda, and will see several soundtracks released. In addition, twice a month McCreary is uploading videos of him playing piano arrangements of his music from Battlestar Galactica, to a newly launched Youtube channel.

Following the recent earthquake, tsunami and its aftermath, composer Akira Yamaoka reached out to the video game community and put together the Play for Japan album. The album, which will be released on June 6th, will benefit the Japanese Red Cross. Bear McCreary contributed the original track, Maverick Regeneration.

Said McCreary, “It’s using a lot of the 8-bit sounds that I used in Dark Void Zero, and then I evolve them over the course of the track into the sound in contemporary gaming. In many ways the track is an homage to the 8-bit Nintendo era, but it also takes those sounds and brings them into the contemporary era of video game music.”

On July 21st, as part of the 7th International Film Music Festival Ciudad de Úbeda, Bear will be conducting two performances of his works, including an hour-long intimate chamber recital featuring world premiere arrangements of music from The Walking Dead, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Caprica, and Battlestar Galactica.

Two days later, on July 23rd, he will be conducting the Philharmonic Orchestra of Málaga boasting a world premiere concert suite of his Emmy™-nominated score for Human Target along with selections from The Cape and Dark Void. McCreary, who earned the festival’s Goldspirit Award for Best Television Score Human Target, will also be conducting a Film Scoring Workshop for festival attendees.

“This concert will be the first time I’ve ever performed the score from many of these projects,” said McCreary, “including the full-orchestral Human Target suite. Narrowing the scores down to my favorite selections is proving quite challenging!”

This summer will also see the release of several soundtracks for McCreary. First off SOCOM 4, which was released digitally in April and a special limited edition two-CD set released in May. Later this summer the soundtrack for THE CAPE will also be released.

Because SOCOM 4 is set in Asia, Bear had an expanded palate of instruments to choose from. “The vast array of instruments at my disposal left me with an embarrassment of riches as I first began composing.” McCreary described, “The gamelan orchestra was the most exciting to me personally, since I’d never written for it before. However, I also relied on the ethnic strings and woodwinds for my melodic writing. The arsenal of taiko drums alone could fill an action cue with energy.”

He continued, “But I also had a full symphonic orchestra at my disposal, which couldn’t be ignored. And simultaneously, the electric soloists and custom electronics gave me an entirely different musical toolbox to draw from.”

While SOCOM 4 gave McCreary a wide range of sounds to use, another of his endeavors involved stripping it all down. McCreary revisited Battlestar Galactica and recently released the Battlestar Galactica Piano Music Book for Hal Leonard Publishing. To celebrate its release, McCreary created a Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/bearmccreary) and twice a month throughout the summer will be uploading videos of him performing these works on the piano. He is inviting his fans to do the same, and will be giving out autographed memorabilia to creators of his favorite videos at the end of the summer.

“Thanks to vocal fan support, the piano music book of my Battlestar Galactica score is finally available,” said McCreary. “So many fans have filmed their own performances of my music, I wanted to do the same.”

Bear McCreary was among a handful of select protégés of late film music legend Elmer Bernstein and is a classically trained composer with degrees in Composition and Recording Arts from the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music. McCreary’s unique combination of atypical instrumental background (he is a professional accordionist) with rigorous classical training prepared him to compose in disparate genres.

This versatility is evident in the body of work McCreary has created including this year’s surprise hit The Walking Dead, Human Target (for which McCreary earned his first Emmy nomination), The Cape, Eureka, the film the Touchstone Pictures film Step Up 3D, and the [amazon_link id=”B002ELCV00″ target=”_blank” ]SOCOM 4[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”B00170823O” target=”_blank” ]Dark Void[/amazon_link] videogames.

At the age of 24, Bear McCreary was launched into pop culture with his score for Battlestar Galactica, “the most innovative music on TV today” (Variety). Io9.com declared Bear McCreary one of the Ten Best Science Fiction Composers of all time, the only composer under 50 on the list (he is in his early 30s), and the only one recognized for his work in television.