This one’s a bit out of order, but I recently was awarded yet another grand honor from the venerable Austin Wintory: I was the engraver for his the Traveler Symphonic Suite at the first-ever, history-making BBC Gaming Prom earlier this week!
This was a huge honor. For years I’ve marveled at the spectacle of the BBC Proms, never dreaming I could one day contribute, even in such a minor way. And this was literally the first gaming prom! As Austin’s original Journey score (the bones of the Traveler Suite) was the record-breaking first video game OST to earn a Grammy nomination, he seems to be perpetually on the frontier of glorious firsts, and I’m very happy to be along for the ride.
For those of you unfamiliar with what an engraver does, the term is a holdover from when they actually used to put pen to paper to draw staves and notes for the performers on the stage (as well as the conductor score). Nowadays, this is all done electronically, but a sharp eye for detail and keen musical instinct is still required to do this job…it’s not just by-rote copying.
Sadly the concert link is no longer available at this time, but sufficed to say it’s a great year for video game music, and I was thrilled to be there for this historic event!