Peter McConnell

McConnell was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Peter studied music as an undergraduate at Harvard University in the 1980s under Timothy Vincent Clarke, Curt Cacioppo and Ivan Tcherepnin. In Harvard McConnell befriended the future LucasArts composer Michael Land,[2] who composed many of the company's titles, and worked with him at the audio company Lexicon. While beginning his career in the Sound Department at LucasArts, Land needed someone who would both compose and implement music into his second project Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and McConnell stepped in.[3] McConnell and Land co-invented iMUSE, LucasArts' patented interactive music system.[4]

During his time at LucasArts, McConnell composed many soundtracks for games such as those in the Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and Star Wars series. Notable titles from this time include Grim Fandango, scored with unique Mexican influenced jazz, klezmer and traditional film score style, and Full Throttle, featuring rock soundtrack which McConnell scored with rock group The Gone Jackals. While composing music for these two games, McConnell worked closely with Tim Schafer, who later hired him to compose scores for the titles Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, and Costume Quest for his company Double Fine Productions.

McConnell left LucasArts in 2000, but contributed to Escape from Monkey Island and special edition of The Secret of Monkey Island. Since then, McConnell has composed scores for Psychonauts, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (about which McConnell says that he was influenced by Henry Mancini works),[5] and Kinectimals.

McConnell is one of the founding members of G.A.N.G., the Game Audio Network Guild. He is also known live-action music performer, playing the electric violin.

In 2013, McConnell returned to the Sly Cooper franchise to score the fourth game, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, which was released in February of that year. The score of the game is performed by the Nashville Music Scoring orchestra. Also, for the first time ever, McConnell's entire score was released on iTunes to accompany the release of the game.

Recently, McConnell has worked on the Double Fine titles Broken Age and the remastered version of Grim Fandango, both of which include performances by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He married Amy McConnell and they now have two children, Eben and Alice. McConnell has also been announced to return to score the upcoming Psychonauts 2, set to be released in 2020.[6]

Video game soundtracks

• McConnell, Peter (September 1999). "Dance of the Dead: The Adventures of a Composer Creating the Game Music for Grim Fandango". Electronic Musician. New York: NewBay Media, LLC. 15 (9): 30–32, 35–36, 38–40, 42. ISSN 0884-4720.
• US patent 5315057, LAND MICHAEL Z [US]; MCCONNELL PETER N [US], "Method and apparatus for dynamically composing music and sound effects using a computer entertainment system (iMUSE patent)", assigned to LUCASARTS ENTERTAINMENT CO [US]

• Cifaldi, Frank (May 2013). "Farewell Lucasarts". Game Developer. San Francisco: UBM LLC. 20 (5). ISSN 1073-922X.
• Taddie, Michel (June 2012). "Skywalker Symphony Orchestra Triumphs at Game Audio Network Guild Awards". International Musician. San Francisco: American Federation of Musicians of the U.S. and Canada. 110 (6): 8. ISSN 0020-8051.
• Jackson, Blair (January 2012). "SFP: Sound for Picture – Music Centerstage In Game Releases". Mix. Berkeley, Calif.: New Bay Media. 36 (1): 30–32, 89. ISSN 0164-9957.
• Shamoon, Evan (November 2004). "Double Fine; Back in the limelight with a new publisher, new digs, and a multi-platform strategy, Tim Schafer's Psychonauts looks to change the face of gaming one neurosis at a time". XBN. New York: Ziff-Davis Media Inc. (20): 78. ISSN 1538-9723.
• Gaughn, Michael (February–March 2000). "George's world". Stereo Review's Sound & Vision. New York: Source Interlink Companies. 65 (2): 90–96. ISSN 1522-810X.
• Tach, Dave (January 27, 2015). "Digital Archeology: How Double Fine, Disney, Lucasarts and Sony Resurrected Grim Fandango". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
• McConnell, Peter (January 17, 2015). "The Score: Grim Fandango composer Peter McConnell". Gamereactor (Interview). Interviewed by Gamereactor Staff. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
• García, Albert (January 28, 2015). "Grim Fandango no estaba tan muerto". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Barcelona.
• McConnell, Peter (February 28, 2013). "Peter McConnell On 'Sly Cooper', 'Grim Fandango', And The Future of Games". Uproxx (Interview). Interviewed by Dan Seitz. Archived from the original on March 27, 2013.
• "Así suena el tema de Hearthstone al estilo MIDI retro – PC". Spain: MeriStation. January 15, 2015. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
• McConnell, Peter. "Interview". GSoundtracks (Interview). Interviewed by GSoundtracks staff. Archived from the original on June 16, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
• McConnell, Peter (March 15, 2014). "Interview with Composer, Peter MCConnell". The Sound Architect (Interview). Interviewed by Sam Hughes. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
• McConnell, Peter (April 20, 2014). "Interview with award-winning video game composer Peter McConnell". Examiner.com (Interview). Interviewed by David Leavitt.

• Official website
• Interview at The International House of Mojo
• Artist profile at OverClocked ReMix
• "An interview with Peter McConnell" Goaste.cx: Elliott, Luke
• Interview with Peter Smith at Classical Music Journal Blog