Bear McCreary
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| Bear McCreary | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Born | February 17, 1979 (30) Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
| Occupations | Composer |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | La La Land Records |
Bear McCreary (17 February 1979) is a classically trained composer and musician living in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his work on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series.
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[edit] Biography
McCreary spent most of his formative years in Bellingham, Washington. He is the son of author Laura Kalpakian. He studied under the renowned film score composer Elmer Bernstein at the USC Thornton School of Music, during which time he reconstructed and re-orchestrated Bernstein's 1963 score for Kings of the Sun. Their collaboration allowed for the complete score to be available as a soundtrack album for the first time in forty years.[1]
From 1998 until 2005, McCreary built up a significant body of work scoring short films, including Jon Chu's musical When the Kids Are Away. McCreary is a trained pianist and a self-taught accordionist, and plays in the avant-jazz band 17 Billion Miles of DNA.[2]
McCreary is engaged to singer and songwriter Raya Yarbrough, with whom he worked on the music of Battlestar Galactica.[3]
[edit] Battlestar Galactica and Caprica
In 2003, McCreary worked under primary composer Richard Gibbs on the 3-hour miniseries which served as a pilot for the re-imagined series of Battlestar Galactica. When the show was picked up, Gibbs opted not to devote full time to the regular series' production, and McCreary became the sole composer. He worked on the series until it reached its conclusion in 2009, scoring over 70 episodes. To date, four Battlestar Galactica soundtrack albums have been released, and have garnered a great deal of critical acclaim[4][5] and commercial success. The soundtracks for season two and three ranked amongst Amazon.com's Top 30 Music Sales on their first days of release.[1]
McCreary will also compose for Caprica, a series set in the fictional Battlestar Galactica universe.
[edit] Other work
McCreary is currently the composer for the television series Eureka and also worked on both seasons of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. He has composed the scores for several direct-to-DVD features, including Rest Stop, Rest Stop 2: Don't Look Back and Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, and is working on the forthcoming video game Dark Void.[6]
He announced on his blog from San Diego Comic Con 2009 that he would be composing for the upcoming television series (based on the comic book of the same name), Human Target. He noted that the epic pilot score had been recorded with a full orchestra.[7]
[edit] Albums
| Title | Type | Released | Tracks | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries | Television Soundtrack | 16 March 2004 | 26 | Credited for 8 tracks |
| Battlestar Galactica: Season One | Television Soundtrack | 21 June 2005 | 30 | |
| Battlestar Galactica: Season Two | Television Soundtrack | 20 June 2006 | 23 | |
| Rest Stop | Motion Picture Soundtrack | 12 December 2006 | 17 | |
| Wrong Turn 2 | Motion Picture Soundtrack | 18 September 2007 | 16 | |
| Battlestar Galactica: Season Three | Television Soundtrack | 23 October 2007 | 21 | |
| Eureka | Television Soundtrack | 26 August 2008 | 28 | |
| Rest Stop: Don't Look Back | Motion Picture Soundtrack | 21 October 2008 | 20 | |
| Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | Television Soundtrack | 16 December 2008 | 24 | |
| Caprica | Television Soundtrack | 16 June 2009 | 18 | |
| Battlestar Galactica: Season Four | Television Soundtrack | 28 July 2009 | 34 | 2-disc edition |
McCreary has also announced plans for an album combining the scores of the Battlestar Galactica TV movies Razor and The Plan.[8] This soundtrack is due out in February 2010.
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Bear McCreary: Biography" (in English). Bear McCreary's Official Site. http://www.bearmccreary.com. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
- ^ ScoreKeeper (2006-06-07). "ScoreKeeper interviews BATTLESTAR GALACTICA'S Bear McCreary!!!". Ain't It Cool News. http://www.aintitcool.com/?q=node/23532. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
- ^ http://www.bearmccreary.com/blog/?p=1536
- ^ Alan Sepinwall (2008-06-22). "Sepinwall on TV: Michael Giacchino and Bear McCreary, score keepers". The Star-Ledger. http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2008/06/sepinwall_on_tv_michael_giacch.html. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
- ^ Maureen Ryan (2008-06-16). "'Battlestar Galactica' provides some Earth-shattering 'Revelations'". Chicago Tribune. http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/06/battlestar-ga-1.html. Retrieved 2009-03-18.
- ^ Ocampo, Jason (April 2, 2009). "Galactica Composer Makes Video Game Debut" (in English). IGN. http://pc.ign.com/articles/969/969125p1.html. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
- ^ McCreary, Bear (July 25, 2009). "Human Target Screens Today" (in English). Bear McCreary's Blog. http://www.bearmccreary.com/blog/?p=2532#comment-4702. Retrieved 2009-07-26.
- ^ McCreary, Bear (March 27, 2009). "Soundtrack Album Updates" (in English). Bear's Battlestar Blog. http://www.bearmccreary.com/blog/?p=1819#more-1819. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
[edit] External links
- Official Bear McCreary Website
- Bear McCreary at the Internet Movie Database
- Audio Interview on GeeksOn!
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