Austin Wintory

Biography

Austin Wintory (born September 9, 1984) is an American composer for film and video games. He is known for scoring the video games Flow and Journey, the latter of which made history as the only video game soundtrack to date to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

Early life

Austin Wintory was born in Denver, Colorado in 1984 and started learning piano when he was ten years old, after his teacher introduced him to composer Jerry Goldsmith. Before the age of ten, Wintory did not play any instruments and barely listened to music. By the age of sixteen, Wintory started writing for and conducting the Cherry Creek High School Orchestra during their performances of the "Spirit of the Cosmos×Spirit of the Cosmos20 June 2012 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Furious Filaments5:442Twilight Mist6:023Into the Sunrise2:514Dance Under the Winter Sky5:225Rondo Alla Behemoth2:356Heart of Thunder2:437The Battle2:588Ages of Athiria4:179Sunset5:2110On the Seas2:4511Spirit of the Cosmos / Movement I10:3012Spirit of the Cosmos / Movement II7:2013Spirit of the Cosmos / Movement III5:55" pieces. Two years later, at the age of eighteen, Wintory conducted the Utah Symphony during its recording of "Cosmos", which became one of his most popular projects, although he refers to it as "atrocious garbage". Since 2003, Wintory has composed over three hundred musical scores.

Beginning of game composing career and Flow

Wintory met Jenova Chen while both attended the University of Southern California (USC). After networking with an interactive media student at USC and scoring a small game project, his name was passed along to Chen, who asked Wintory to score his thesis project, Flow, later re-released on PlayStation Network. Wintory, Chen and Nick Clarke developed the first version of Flow as a three-man team, with Wintory remarking that Chen had an incredible way of processing information, seeing far beyond code and reaching into the emotional implications of things. As a traditional orchestral student at the time, Wintory considered the music of Flow was radically unlike any he had written before. Wintory regards the pink area of the game, where the player controls a jellyfish-like creature, as the humorous area of the game, describing his music for it as almost "circus-like" compared to the overall soundtrack.

Monaco

Originally, Monaco developer Andy Schatz sought out licensed music as a backdrop to the game's setting, feeling that the style of music needed was too esoteric to hire a composer. Wintory, however, was able to convince Schatz that he could create an original score that fit the project's vision. Likening 2D sprite-based games to the silent film era, Wintory agreed with the notion that the soundtrack to a game like Monaco should have an earnest yet self-aware nostalgic feeling, stating "There's no way to just objectively listen to that style of music without automatically being like 'This reminds me of a bygone era.'" Wintory was excited at the chance to create an old-timey score with wit and humor, stating "when else am I ever going to be asked to write anything remotely like this?"

Other works

Wintory will compose the music and conduct a live orchestra for a touring BAFTA Games in Concert, to start in 2026 and featuring music from winners of the British Academy Games Awards.