Inon Zur
| Inon Zur | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 4, 1965 Israel |
| Genres | Orchestral, Soundtrack |
| Occupation(s) | Composer |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Website | inonzur |
Inon Zur (Hebrew: ינון צור, [jiˈnon ˈt͡sur]; born July 4, 1965) is an Israeli-American music composer who has won several awards for his work. Originally writing for movies and television, he later moved into composing for video games. He has been described as being "internationally recognized as one of the A-list orchestral composers in the video games industry". During his career to date, Zur has composed the music to over 50 video games, 15 television shows, and 10 movies, as well as many movie trailers. He has been nominated for numerous awards, and has won three—a Telly Award in 1997 for Best Score on Power Rangers: Turbo, a Game Audio Network Guild award in 2004 for Best Original Instrumental track for Men of Valor, and a Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2009 for Best Original Song – Video Game for Dragon Age: Origins. He currently lives in Encino, California, in the United States, and is composing the scores for several unreleased games.
Inon Zur was born in Israel. As early as five years old, he was trying to compose harmonies with his mother's singing, and became inspired by classical music. He learned to play french horn as a child, studied piano by the age of eight, and was studying composition by the age of ten. He graduated from the Music Academy of Tel Aviv, and spent four years in the Israeli military. He emigrated to the United States in 1990 to study at the Dick Grove School of Music for a year, and then under private tutor Jack Smalley, a television music composer, and others for two years at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Zur began his career in 1994 by working on soundtracks for movies, such as Yellow Lotus, featured at the Sundance Film Festival. He then signed on to compose for Fox Family for six years, and made soundtracks for various children's television shows, including Digimon and Power Rangers. By 2002 he estimated that he had composed the soundtrack to over 360 Power Rangers episodes alone. He won his first award during this period in his career, a Telly Award for his work on Power Rangers: Turbo. While he enjoyed the work, he began to want to go work somewhere "more intriguing, more advanced, and basically a place that people really appreciate music more"; his agent overcame his initial reluctance and convinced him to work in the video games industry. His first video game soundtrack was 2000's Star Trek: Klingon Academy, though he started composing for the game in 1997. Zur quickly moved on to prestigious titles, composing for the award-winning and critically acclaimed Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal in 2001 and Icewind Dale II in 2002, among many others. Icewind Dale II earned him the first of many nominations for video game music awards, that of the Game Audio Network Guild's Music of the Year award. He continued to work on movies and television programs during these years, composing the soundtrack to Au Pair in 1999 and the English version of the 2000 anime series Escaflowne.
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