2021 MUSIC+SOUND AWARDS JURIES
ADVERTISING JURY
Dave Lapinsky, VP Music Producer, oversees music strategy, production, and supervision for Grey, a global advertising and marketing powerhouse agency, part of WPP. Dave and his team have been recognized for notable projects including numerous Super Bowl spots (P&G, Febreze, Pringles) and impactful Cannes award-winning campaigns. He recently launched the innovative audio-centric “Sounds of New York” campaign for Volvo in partnership with Spotify. Prior to joining Grey/Townhouse, Dave worked in the live event production and touring industry.
Dave Lapinsky
Grey / Townhouse, New York
VP Music Producer // Ads .
As a music producer at advertising agency Energy BBDO, Nick pairs brands with bands, shaping the sound of global clients such as Jack Daniels, Champion, Woodford Reserve, Wrigley Extra, 5 and Orbit Gum, Starbucks, SC Johnson, MillerCoors and many more.
Prior to moving stateside, Nick worked with leading Australian supervision company Level Two Music, sourcing and licensing music for creative productions on behalf of brands like Ford, McDonalds, Lexus, Heineken, Mercedes Benz and Mars.
Nick Maker
Energy BBDO, Chicago
Music Producer // Ads .
J Bonilla is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of award-winning music company The Elements Music. With offices in Los Angeles and London, the company specializes in creating record-quality original music for picture and also licenses a vast catalogue of songs and tracks.
J began his career engineering, programming, remixing, and producing records for some of the world’s biggest artists including Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Keith Urban, and Christina Aguilera. His co-founding partner, Ian Dalsemer, also began his music career in the studio, engineering for some of the industry’s top artists (Beyonce, Elton John, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre). Together, the duo pivoted to music for picture, and set out to create a music company that would be regarded as best-in-class at creating authentic “mini-records”.
Over a decade later, The Elements Music has a roster of over 150 of the best independent artists and composers from around the globe, a robust production team in their Los Angeles and London offices, and a body of work that includes brands such as Nike, Samsung, BMW, Google, NBA, Porsche, Dyson, and Uber to name a few - as well as working with leading TV Networks like NBC/Universal on award-winning promos for ‘The Super Bowl’ and hit shows like ‘The Voice USA’ and ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’.
“It’s unreal that I get to wake up every day and create music with insanely talented artists and composers, work with teammates that I love and respect, and continue to build a company that I’m wildly passionate about!”
J is based in Los Angeles and lives with his wife Jackie and two children Cameron and Chloe.
J Bonilla
The Elements Music, LA
Co-Founder + Creative Director // Ads
Jeremy Newton
SixtyFour Music, London
Senior Music Supervisor // Ads + Film
Chris Afzal is an award-winning sound designer and engineer with over 20 years' experience in New York's advertising industry.
Chris joined Wave Studios in 2018 when they opened their doors in NY as one of the lead sound designers/mixers at the facility. Since then, he’s been involved in critically acclaimed campaigns such as Smirnoff’s “Infamous Since 1864” with 72andsunny and Wall Street Journal’s “Read Yourself Better” with The&Partnership.
After attending New York University's Master’s program in Music Technology, Chris got his post-production start at JWT’s New York studio, where he spent six years as an audio mixer and sound designer before being recruited to build and lead the audio department at Charlex. Through his successful growth of their audio offering, Chris drew the attention of New York-based audio post house Sound Lounge, where he spent five years on their team. He then headed up the audio department at Gramercy Park Studios where he worked closely with WPP agencies JWT, Grey, Y&R, and Ogilvy.
Over the course of his career, Chris has cultivated relationships with such agencies as Droga5, Johannes Leonardo, VMLY&R, and 72andSunny, and has added his touch to the work of high-profile brands like Allstate, Jack Daniels, Adidas, Ford, PlayStation, Facebook, and Pepsi, earning awards that include the Cannes Lions Film Craft Grand Prix, three Gold Cannes Lions, an AMP Award for Outstanding Mix, and an International Fashion Film Award.
Chris Afzal
Wave Studios, New York
Senior Sound Designer + Mixer // Ads .
After a brief spell playing the drums in some of Hoxton's finest dives, Ed turned his attention to the other side of the mixing desk, joining Wave in 2007.
After a healthy stint locked in a cupboard working as the sound effects editor on the feature film Under the skin, Ed has emerged as an award winning sound designer. He picked up the best Sound Design award at the 2019 Music+Sound Awards for ‘WITH I N’, a film directed by Crowns & Owls for Mind. His work has also been recognised internationally with wins at D&AD, Cannes Lions, LIA and New York Festivals. Recent commercial sound design credits include PlayStation, Coca Cola, Adidas, Smirnoff, Nike, Google and Samsung.
Ed Downham
Wave Studios, London
Sound Designer // Ads + Film
David Fisher
Songs for Film & TV
Chief Creative Director // Ads, Film + TV
Jessie LaBelle is a music supervisor and currently Head of Creative Synch at Spark Music Group. She currently works with multi-platinum artists like Teddy Geiger (Shawn Mendez, Lizzo, Maroon 5, Leon Bridges) and award winning composers including Dan Romer (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Ramy, Maniac) collaborating with some of the world's biggest brands and agencies, as well as the film and television industries.
Previously, she worked with several leading companies in the licensing/synch space, primarily with independent and emerging artists and producers, leading creative direction and music supervision in several high profile campaigns, tv shows, and films.
Past clients include The Coca Cola Company, Showtime, HBO, Ubisoft, McDonald's, Capital One, Levi's, Kohler and many others with highly successful campaigns and brand/artist collaborations.
Jessie is also the Chair for the Chicago Chapter of Women in Music, a non-profit organization working to advance the awareness, equality, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, and recognition. She is also a member of the Guild of Music Supervisors, as well as The Recording Academy (Grammys).
Jessie LaBelle
Music Supervisor // Ads, Film + TV
Ben Dorenfeld
Anomaly, New York
Senior Music Producer // Ads .
James Dean Wells is the East Coast/Mid-West Executive Producer at one of adverting’s leading music and audio creative powerhouses, Human & Post Human. Wells spent nearly ten years in the recorded music industry, working at independent promotion houses, major labels (EMI & Warner Music Group) and smaller boutique indie labels.
In 2007, he switched from the label side to the artist side and put out two records with Warners, touring extensively throughout North America and Europe.
In 2011, Wells made the move to advertising and began working with Human, producing some of the most ambitious and high profile projects of his career. In 2015, Wells was appointed Executive Producer guiding Human towards some of its most high profile, award winning work to date, including the 2017 Cannes Lion Grand Prix for Adidas Originals “Original Is Never Finished”. He currently resides in Greenpoint, NY, with his wife and son.
James Wells
Human + Post Human, New York
Executive Producer // Ads
Lodewijk Pöttker
Massive Music, Amsterdam
Head of Music Production // Ads
Julie Nichols
Squeak E. Clean Studios, Chicago
Senior Composer // Ads
Cristiano Pinheiro is a creative director. Currently the owner of PUNCH Audio, an internationally renowned Music and Sound Design house founded in 2011.
Cristiano has won several global awards in all major festivals including a Grand Prix in Radio and Gold Lions in Film, Digital Craft, Radio and Cyber at Cannes Lions Festival.
He was also responsible for the sound and music for Getty Images NOSFERATU that won over 60 awards worldwide, including Cannes, London International, Clio, D&AD, New York Festival, The One Show, Art Directors Club (Best of Discipline) and others.
Currently in Sao Paulo, Cristiano has lived and worked in Los Angeles and Paris.
Cristiano Pinheiro
PUNCH Audio, Sao Paulo
Founder + Creative Director // Ads
James joined 750mph in 2015 as a Sound Designer and Mix Engineer from Jungle Studios and is also an accomplished musician and music producer.
In 2018 he won Best Sound Design at the Music & Sound Awards for his work on Shell ‘Cold’ as well as a Silver Kinsale Shark, Bronze Clio and shortlisted at Shots and Ciclope. 2017 Shots Awards saw James win Bronze for sound design on McLaren ‘Raise Your Limits, ’Guinness ‘Ashwin’s story’ won a Silver British Arrow for the best over 90 sec commercial in 2016.
A number of top London agencies exercise James’ craft and expertise over a wide variety of brands such as Nike, Fosters, Rolls Royce, Guinness, Center Parcs, Toyota and McLaren to name a few.
James Cobbold
750mph, London
Sound Engineer // Ads .
Tom Stanford is Founder & Director of both Theodore (supervision & licensing) and Wake The Town (bespoke composition). He supervises music for advertising campaigns across the world, collaborating with advertising agencies and brands and placing music in their campaigns, overseeing the process from inception, through the creative process to the final licensing. His work for Theodore has also now branched out into supervising for TV & Film.
After working for record labels, management companies and running a music festival, he started his career in music supervision at Stream Music (within the TBWA network), before moving onto Platinum Rye in London and finally leaving to set up both Theodore and Wake The Town.
You can get a taste of Tom’s music mind by exploring his extensive playlist collection on his Spotify Profile <https://open.spotify.com/user/tomstanford?si=nMS5be65TFCECA_lU9z4qg
Tom Stanford
Theodore + Wake The Town, London
Founder + Director // Ads, TV + Film
Sarah Tembeckjian is a freelance music supervisor based in Brooklyn, NY.
She got her start at Downtown Music Publishing (dms.FM one-stop catalog), and later switched sides into music supervision with in-house positions at Vice Media and dentsu mcgarrybowen.
Sarah has worked on a wide range of clients in advertising and branded content, including American Express, Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser), Samsung, United Airlines, Audible, Intel & more.
In the “before,” you could find her regularly DJing industry events around NYC, traveling and hitting live shows. These days, she’s spending a lot of time in upstate New York, still listening to mountains of music, just no longer standing in heeled boots for hours on end. Her feet are grateful for the respite.
Sarah Tembeckjian
Music Supervisor, New York // Ads, Film + TV . . . .
Following a special calling to venture into the world of music and sound, Felix devoted his early quests to being an eager music producer and DJ. This led him to cross paths with label owner and future HearDis! co-founder, Robin Hofmann.
Felix co-founded playdis in 2011 together with Robin and Georg von dem Bussche. As the music production subsidiary of leading audio branding company HearDis!, playdis specialized in original composition, songwriting, music supervision, licensing, voice production & sound design from early mood searches to the final mix.
His long-lasting experience as executive music producer together with his entrepreneurial profile makes Felix a hands-on leader renowned for his intellect around music licensing, music publishing and inception of new business ventures across the music, media and technology domains.
Felix Haaksman
playdis, Berlin
Co-Founder + Managing Director // Ads
Jonathan Watts
Adelphoi, London
Head of Production // Ads .
Peter Holcomb
Sound Lounge, New York
Partner, Sound Designer + Mixer // Ads
Ben is an established Senior Sound Designer with over 16 years’ experience collaborating with top directors and creative agencies. He regularly works on UK and international campaigns which have been recognised at D&AD, Cannes Lion & BTAA Crafts. He is well versed in deliverables across Cinema, Television, Online and radio.
Ben has worked on multiple award winning campaigns, including best sound design for Royal Marines ‘Spider’ at the Music and Sound Awards. His attention to detail and the creative understanding is reflected in his work and his approach to each project.
Ben Gulvin
Machine, London
Senior Sound Designer // Ads
Siân Rogers is an award winning producer & music supervisor at SIREN, heading up all Supervision.
Siân got a taste for the music industry, starting her career at XL Recordings / Beggars making copious, but rather wonderful, cups of tea followed by a 3 year stint at EMI.
In 2012 Siân joined the SIREN team and quickly fell in love with the process of producing music to picture. She has since worked on global advertising campaigns for top agencies & brands such as W&K, Nike, Droga5, Under Armour, BBH, adam&eveDDB, Google, 72&Sunny and Samsung to name just a few.
Working directly with artists & composers on bespoke compositions as well as sync Siân has developed a solid reputation, both in the UK and overseas, for expert client and artist management, and an on-point musical instinct.
As well as a vast array of high-end advertising projects Siân has also been heavily involved in longer form music supervision including the BAFTA winning ‘Home’ and score supervising on ‘Kissing Candice’ and ‘River Runner’.
Siân Rogers
SIREN, London
Head of Supervision // Ads .
Eric started playing multiple instruments, writing songs and recording at the age of 8, but it was only after participating in his 6th grade talent show singing Guns N Roses "Patience", that Eric's school bus became his "tour bus" and his passion for music catapulted to unfound heights and a clear career goal.
Despite his parents' fear of him not having health insurance, Eric pressed ahead to find his way to New York City and landed a role honing his skills as an assistant engineer at the world famous Sony Music Studios (His favorite session was with The Roots).
As careers would have it, Eric was then offered an opportunity to join the creative department at J Walter Thompson as a Music Producer where he worked on 1000s of projects from inception to finish. It was here that he interfaced with top creatives, clients, and musicians all over the world and learned the entire process of advertising production while significantly expanding his skill set as a Creative Director.
Joining the The Music Playground early on, Eric has been able to combine all his passions into his role as Chief Creative Officer. From starting the bands and artist licensing division, composing / creative directing over 8000 projects (Carrot Vs Ninja may have been the craziest thing he wrote music for), to finding, recording, and collaborating with up and coming talent all over the world. We are happy that Eric calls this Playground his home.
When not at our studio, he is in his studio, and when not in his studio, he is frustratingly trying to plot his next career move as a professional golfer.
Eric Hillebrecht
The Music Playground, New York
CCO, Head of A&R // Ads, Film + TV
FILM + TV JURY
Isobel Waller-Bridge
Composer // Film + TV .
“I love what I do and over the years I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with many seasoned filmmakers, as well as directors just starting out. It is always exciting to realize their sonic vision, and guide them toward seeing how sound can create an intriguing and supportive landscape for the story they want to tell.”
Bender began his sound career on “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Prior to joining Formosa Group, he spent over thirty years at Soundelux. As a co-founder at 18, he and his partners built a community and support system that set the stage for artistic excellence that fostered many successful careers in the sound community. Bender won an Oscar for the Sound Effects Editing for “Braveheart” (shared with Formosa’s Per Hallberg). Bender also received Oscar nominations for “Blood Diamond“, “Drive” and “The Revenant” and was awarded a scientific and technical award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Advanced Data Encoding System.
Lon Bender
Formosa Group, Los Angeles
Supervising Sound Editor, Re-Recording Mixer, Sound Designer // Film + TV
Joe is a Supervising Sound Editor and Sound Designer from London working at Boom Post. Joe has worked on a wide range of TV and Film projects including The Imitation Game, Hanna and I May Destroy You. In 2019 Joe won BAFTA, Emmy and Music+Sound awards for his Sound Design work on HBO/SKY's miniseries Chernobyl.
Joe Beal
Boom Post, London
Supervising Sound Editor / Sound Designer // TV + Film
Jessica Moore
Level Two Music, Melbourne
Film + TV Manager Music Supervisor // Film + TV
Jon Opstad is a London-based composer, working across film, television, contemporary dance and concert music. His music often combines contemporary classical elements with electronics, merging acoustic instrumentation with both modern and vintage electronic instruments and techniques.
Recent work includes scoring the 10-part science fiction drama The Feed for Amazon, starring David Thewlis, Michelle Fairley, Guy Burnet & Nina Toussaint-White; 6-part BBC/UKTV crime drama We Hunt Together and 5-part BBC One period drama The Woman In White, starring Jessie Buckley, Dougray Scott, Charles Dance & Art Malik. Since early 2018 Jon has been the composer for the major Ubisoft video game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, taking the place of original composers Ben Frost and Paul Haslinger.
Other television scores include two episodes of Charlie Brooker’s cult dystopian Netlfix/Channel 4 series Black Mirror (White Bear, and the feature-length special White Christmas starring Jon Hamm); the second series of ITV thriller Safe House, starring Stephen Moyer; 5-part BBC thriller Thirteen, starring Jodie Comer; the acclaimed BAFTA-winning Channel 4 docudrama The Murder Detectives; BAFTA-winning BBC single drama Don’t Take My Baby from writer Jack Thorne; BAFTA-nominated TV movie Cyberbully starring Maisie Williams; Channel 4’s The Watchman, starring Stephen Graham; and the Savile episode of Louis Theroux’s hard-hitting documentary series for BBC Two.
Jon’s composition “Blue Sky, White Clouds” was released as a single on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label in 2020, as part of their Project XII series. In summer 2019 Jon’s composition ‘Ignis IV’ was used as the score for the trailer for the film Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones.
Jon studied music at Cambridge University and film music at the National Film & Television School. After graduating he began his career by working extensively as an additional music composer, programmer and orchestrator for a range of composers including Jocelyn Pook, Max Richter, Martin Phipps, Ruth Barrett, Sheridan Tongue and Richard Thomas, across many film, television and stage projects. Jon was also additional music composer for the Oscar-nominated film Theeb.
Jon’s music often combines his classical training with a progressive approach to electronic music, as shown in his music for The Feed, which is scored for string orchestra, analogue synthesisers, vocals and electric guitars.
Jon contributed synthesiser parts and string arranging to the track ‘Smoke’ from singer-songwriter Tracey Thorn’s acclaimed 2018 album Record.
Jon was nominated for a British Composer Award in 2014, in the Stage Works category, for his score for contemporary dance work Ignis, combining solo violin with electronics. He was the winner of the 2011 Presteigne Festival competition for composers. Radio broadcasts of his music include BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and In Tune programmes, as well as New Sounds on New York radio station WNYC, for which Jon was interviewed discussing his music in 2015.
Jon works from his studio in north London.
Jon Opstad
Composer // Film, TV + Games
Lewis is an award-winning sound effects editor and designer, whose work spans across broadcast dramas and feature films. Some of his most well-known credits include; Criminal UK (Netflix), Worzel Gummidge (BBC One), The Capture (BBC One) and Patrick Melrose (Showtime/Sky Atlantic) to name but a few. He has also worked on multiple feature films including Idris Elba's 'Yardie', and Duncan Jones' 'Mute'.
Lewis has been nominated for various awards including an MPSE Golden Reel, a Broadcast Tech Innovation award, and multiple Music + Sound awards - the latter of which he won in 2019 for his work as part of the Patrick Melrose sound team.
Lewis Todd
Molinare, London
Sound Effects Editor + Designer // Film + TV . .
With a background in music writing and radio presenting, Zoë joined Pete at Carbon Logic in early 2016 as assistant music supervisor.
Fast-forward five years and she’s a full-time music supervisor with over twenty projects’ experience, including I Hate Suzie and Derry Girls.
Zoë Ellen Bryant
Carbon Logic, London
Music Supervisor // Film + TV
Lindsay is a versatile British composer creating evocative and emotional scores across all genres of film, television and games. Her work combines contemporary classical instrumentation and traditional practices with modern electronics and experimental techniques, culminating in an original and unique sound palette for every score.
She recently scored the HBO/BBC feature documentary The Mystery of D.B. Cooper with Tim Atack; the three-part BBC documentary series Inside Monaco and the four-part BBC series 21 Again. She also scored the upcoming BFI-backed coming-of-age short drama Pop starring Stephen Graham; the acclaimed short documentaries Entitled and Dark Matter as part of Channel 4's Random Acts; and BAFTA-winning director Caroline Bartleet's short drama The Bind for BBC Films. Her work in advertising includes the latest British Airways online and broadcast media campaign, 'Take Off to the People and Places You Love'.
Lindsay has worked extensively in the music department on high end television and film projects, contributing additional music for Stan Lee's Lucky Man, starring James Nesbitt; Sky Atlantic's The Tunnel, starring Stephen Dillane and Cleménce Poésy; and feature film The Aftermath, a period drama starring Keira Knightley and Alexander Skarsgård. Lindsay is the music editor for the third and fourth series of Netflix's multi-award-winning drama The Crown, starring Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies and Helena Bonham Carter. Alongside her colleagues, she was nominated for the 2020 Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing in a Comedy or Drama Series. She was also the music editor for the Amazon Studios drama series The Feed starring Guy Burnet, Michelle Fairley and David Thewlis; the upcoming Netflix feature The Forgotten Battle starring Tom Felton, and has edited soundtrack albums for BBC's Peaky Blinders and Black Earth Rising.
Highly musically creative from a young age, Lindsay grew up performing in orchestras, chamber ensembles and bands before graduating from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a First Class BMus (Hons) degree. She continued her studies with a MA in Composing for Film, Television & Games at the National Film and Television School. She then began her career working as an assistant and programmer for composers such as Carly Paradis on the Netflix drama series The Innocents and BBC's Line of Duty; Ben Bartlett on the acclaimed ITV detective series Vera; and Theo Vigden for the second season of the BBC comedy series Hold The Sunset and Disney's 101 Dalmatian Street. As well as writing for media, Lindsay is developing her work as a solo artist, with an upcoming EP release coming soon.
Lindsay Wright
Composer // Film, TV, Ads + Games
Glenfield Payne has been working in the film industry for over 25 years. He was the Supervising Sound Editor for three Academy Award nominated films, 4 Little Girls, Trouble the Water, and The Cove, which won an Oscar for best documentary. Glen also received an Emmy nomination for his work on 4 Little Girls and 2 Motion Picture Sound Editor’s Golden Reel nominations for Netflix’s Marco Polo.
He has worked with acclaimed directors such as Spike Lee, Joel & Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Lee Daniels, Wes Anderson, Julie Taymor, Cary Fukunaga and Steven Soderbergh, among others. Glen recently mixed Lee Daniels’ The United States vs Billie Holiday. He has also supervised and mixed sound for television including Alpha House, Red Oaks, The Girlfriend Experience, and Sweetbitter.
Glenfield is a founding member of HARBOR’s sound division where he continues to collaborate with talented individuals in the film and television community and work on groundbreaking and noteworthy projects.
Glenfield Payne
Harbor Picture Company, New York
Supervising Sound Editor // Film + TV . .
Catherine Grieves is an award winning and EMMY nominated Music Supervisor, working across television and film.
Credits include the international hit drama Killing Eve (EMMY nominated for Outstanding Music Supervision, Hollywood Music and Media Award winner for Outstanding Music Supervision), Lynne Ramsay’s feature You Were Never Really Here, starring Joaquin Phoenix (Music Week Award winner for Outstanding Film Soundtrack), and critically acclaimed BAFTA and EMMY winning dramas Brexit: The Uncivil War for Channel 4 and HBO, The Long Songfor the BBC, The Durrells for ITV, Collateral for BBC/Netflix, London Spy; and JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy.
Most recently, Catherine supervised BBC drama series Us, the adaptation of David Nicholl’s novel starring Tom Hollander; and LIFE, the new Doctor Foster spin-off from Mike Bartlett, both recently broadcast on BBC One; romantic drama Trigonometry for BBC Two, the third series of Riviera for Sky; feature films His House for New Regency Pictures, released on Netflix at Halloween; and musical comedy The Man In The Hat, released in UK cinemas in September.
As well as independently supervising film and television projects, Catherine also represents a roster of award winning film and TV composers at Faber Music, and jointly fronts Faber Alt., Faber’s new pop publishing division.
Catherine Grieves
Faber Music Ltd, London
Music Supervisor + Head of Film + TV
GAME JURY
Peter Scaturro, Sr Music Producer at Sony Interactive Entertainment, leads a team of innovative musical and technical professionals in creating interactive scores for PlayStation’s top games. His most recent credits include God of War by developer Santa Monica Studio for which he received an Original Music BAFTA, Ghost of Tsushima by Sucker Punch Productions, Bloodborne and Demon’s Souls by From Software and Sony’s Japan Studio, and award-winning Death Stranding by Kojima Productions.
Music creation has been a constant in Scaturro’s life. Prior to his work at Sony, he had the privilege of working with many brilliant musicians while producing records and composing music for numerous television shows, films, and international advertising campaigns.
At Sony, he collaborates with trailblazing composers, musicians, writers, and directors, always striving to make every production a critical success that excites fans and pushes the boundaries of interactive music.
Scaturro says about his work at Sony, "Video games offer a chance to experience the unreal, and a great score is critical to conveying the emotion that brings the action to life."
Peter Scaturro
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Senior Music Producer // Games
Martin Stig Andersen is a composer and sound designer with a background in the fields of acousmatic music, sound installations, electroacoustic performance, and video art.
After graduating from The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark in 2003, he went on to study electroacoustic composition under Professor Denis Smalley at City University, London.
In 2009 he created the audio for Playdead’s video game LIMBO which won Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design at the Interactive Achievement Awards, the IndieCade Sound Award 2010, and was nominated for Use of Audio at the BAFTA Video Games Awards 2011.
Following LIMBO, Martin created and directed the audio for Playdead’s INSIDE (2016) which won Best Audio at the Game Developers Choice Awards, and received nominations at The Game Awards, The Interactive Achievement Awards, and the BAFTAs.
In 2017 he composed the score for MachineGames’ Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, alongside Mick Gordon, receiving nominations at The Interactive Achievement Awards, New York Game Awards and others.
Martin was involved as Ambient Music Designer on Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018), and has recently composed the score for Remedy’s video game Control (2019) and MachineGames’ Wolfenstein: Youngblood (2019).
He is currently working on a AAA title as well as a game project by Thekla, and has been speaking at conferences such as GDC, Develop, and the School of Sound in London.
Martin Stig Andersen
Composer + Sound Designer // Games .
Alkis Argyriadis has been working at Ubisoft for more than 20 years. After graduating in Sound Design, he worked as a video game Audio Director for 10 years at Ubisoft Paris Studio on a wide range of video games such as Red Steel, XIII, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow and Ghost Recon, among others. Alkis has been particularly involved in the design and development of interactive music systems.
He then became Creative Director of music video games such as Michael Jackson The Experience and ABBA : You Can Dance, before directing the internationally acclaimed Just Dance franchise for 8 years as Brand Creative Director.
Since 2019, Alkis has been managing the international Ubisoft Music team, which is based in Paris, Montreal and Shanghai, and which handles music supervision, licensing, publishing and artist partnerships within the company.
Alkis Argyriadis
Ubisoft, Paris
Head of Music // Games
Petri Alanko (aka Lowland) is a BAFTA nominated Finnish composer, musician and producer. His dynamic repertoire ranges from the haunting orchestral/electronic score for Remedy Entertainment’s psycho-thriller, Alan Wake, to elegant and sophisticated classical arrangements for Imaginaerum The Movie, based on the album by symphonic metal band Nightwish.
His latest opus is the twisted and ominuous electronic sci-fi score for Remedy’s next cinematic blockbuster, Control (composed in co-operation with Martin Stig Andersen), and he composed music for Remedy’s critically acclaimed Quantum Break, filled with beautiful haunting and electronic thematic works. Several other titles are currently waiting for their release.
Alanko’s solo album, “We’ve Been Here Before”, under his moniker “Lowland” was released in 28th August, 2018.
Petri Alanko
Composer // Games . . .
Derek Duke
Blizzard, California
Musical Director // Games
Janesta Boudreau is Owner Director at Rocking Horse Road Productions – a music licensing house based in Nova Scotia, Canada. RHR is a full-service Licensing Agency – providing music supervision and clearance services, and COVERSION - a sync focused covers catalogue for high quality and sync ready clearable cover songs. Under the RHR banner, Boudreau is currently working with video game developer and publisher, Frontier Developments and has completed two feature films (Night Blooms, Spinster) and consulted on many more projects including film, television, and online productions.
With Frontier, Janesta has worked on games, trailers, and soundtracks for the Elite Dangerous franchise, Planet Coaster, Jurassic World Evolution, and Planet Zoo. She is a two-time nominee at the Music Week Sync Awards and Winner of the 2018 Canadian Sync Award for Music Supervision: Video Games.
Janesta Boudreau
Director of Licensing at Rocking Horse Road, Nova Scotia + Music Supervisor for Frontier Developments // Games
EMMY award-winner and three-time BAFTA nominated composer Inon Zur is internationally renowned for his emotionally dynamic original music scores for film, television and blockbuster video game franchises including FALLOUT, DRAGON AGE, PRINCE OF PERSIA, and THE ELDER SCROLLS.
Zur’s iconic themes and avant garde scores for the ‘Fallout’ series have been described as “Sophisticated and atmospheric” (Classic FM) and received two BAFTA nominations. His best-selling soundtrack for ‘Fallout 4’ is celebrated as one of the best original video game scores by BAFTA, The Game Awards, and Classic FM. Recently his original score for ‘The Elder Scrolls: Blades’ received top honors at the Hollywood Music In Media Awards.
Classically trained with a flair for powerful, melodic orchestral writing, Inon conducts and records world-class orchestras and his music is also performed in symphonic concerts. He has produced and collaborated with artists including Florence + The Machine and is signed to Sony Music with his debut major label album release, Into The Storm.
Inon’s upcoming soundtracks include the epic sci-fi action RPG ‘OUTRIDERS’ (Square Enix) featuring heavy orchestral soundscapes blended with futuristic musical sound design, and a neo-classical and multi-ethnic score for ‘Syberia: The World Before’ (Microids), as well as several other major projects currently in development. For more information visit www.inonzur.com.
Inon Zur
Composer // Games . . .
Greg O’Connor-Read founded Top Dollar PR with International A&R Manager Valerie Vickers (Elektra, One Little Indian) as a boutique music PR agency dedicated to promoting a new generation of artists, composers and producers creating original music for interactive entertainment and other media. With over two decades of music industry experience encompassing international A&R and press at major and independent record labels, Billboard chart hits, live concert promotion and interactive media, they represent A-list composer talent in video games and many of the genre’s critically acclaimed and best-selling soundtracks. Notable industry achievements include lobbying for and establishing the music category at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Video Game Awards, publicity for the best-selling original video game soundtrack album of all time, HALO 2 (produced by Nile Rodgers), multiple award-winning AAA press campaigns (ASSASSIN’S CREED, BIOSHOCK, CALL OF DUTY, CASTLEVANIA, CONTROL, DEAD SPACE, DEUS EX, FALLOUT, GOD OF WAR, HALO, HITMAN, HORIZON: ZERO DAWN, JAMES BOND 007, MASS EFFECT, MYST, ORI, THE ELDER SCROLLS, THE LAST GUARDIAN, TOMB RAIDER, UNCHARTED, THE WITCHER, among others), and launching the international music conferences Game Music Connect and Screen Music Connect
Greg O’Connor-Read
Top Dollar PR
Composer Agent
Richard Beddow is an Ivor Novello award-winning composer, game audio veteran of 23 years and Audio Director at Creative Assembly, responsible for the audio on the BAFTA winning Total War series
Richard Beddow
The Creative Assembly, London
Audio Director // Games
Adele Cutting is a BAFTA award-winning audio professional with 20+ years experience in audio direction, designing sound, music editing, casting and directing actors and covering all things audio across games, TV, installations, mobile and VR.
In 2011, Adele founded audio production company, Soundcuts, winners of Develop awards for Creative Outsourcing - Audio in 2017/18 and a TIGA for Best Audio Supplier in 2018.
Before Soundcuts, Adele spent 15 years at EA, working her way up the ranks from Junior Sound Designer to Senior Audio Director, working on blockbuster titles such the Harry Potter franchise (on which she wore both audio and voice director hats), plus well known cult classics Populous the Beginning and Theme Park World.
Recent titles Adele has worked on include Assassin's Creed Odyssey (UK and Athens Voice Direction), The Room Old Sins (Sound Design), Pinky Malinky (Music Editing and co-ordination), Astrologaster (Voice Direction), Elements - a James Bond cinematic installation in the alps (Sound Design and Music Editing), Planet Zoo (Speech production (Casting/Direction/PostPro) and Immortals Fenyx Rising (UK and Athens Voice Direction)
Adele regularly sits on juries for various sound awards (BAFTA and the Game Audio Network Guild) and regularly talks at Universities and Game Industry events.
Adele Cutting
Soundcuts, UK
Founder, Audio Director // Games .
Olivier Asselin is Audio Director at Electronic Arts in the Motive Studio in Montreal, Canada. He’s worked in the games industry for the past 15 years, starting at EA Montreal back in 2006.
He’s been working as a sound designer on a wide range of AAA video games, including: StarWars Squadron, Battlefront 2 (TEC Award and Golden Real Award winner, BAFTA nominated) and the Army of Two franchise.
In the game industry he’s found the perfect balance of creation and technology that match perfectly with his music (electro-acoustic composition) and science (degree in Biology) background.
Olivier Asselin
Motive Studio - Electronic Arts, Montreal
Audio Director // Games
Aldo Sampaio is Audio director at Ubisoft Montreal, Canada. Having been in the games industry for almost 20 years joining Ubisoft in 2009.
After graduating in Master of Design Science (Audio Design) at the University of Sydney, Australia, Aldo worked as a sound designer for Pandemic Studios on titles such as the Destroy All Humans and Mercenaries series.
Aldo has worked on a wide range of AAA game franchises from Assassin’s Creed (including BAFTA nominated Assassin’s Creed – Black Flag), The Division to Prince of Persia as sound designer and Audio Director. His latest work includes Assassin’s Creed – Valhalla as Audio director.
Aldo Sampaio
Ubisoft, Montreal
Audio Director // Games
Award-winning composer and Audio Director at Sony Bend Studio and on 2019's Days Gone (winner of several awards, including a Webby for Best Sound Design and Music). Writer and composer of Off-Broadway musical Spellbound which was nominated for the New York Lark Play Development Center New Musical award.
Paul Deakin
Lightspeed LA
Tencent America
Audio Director // Games
Don Veca has been working as Audio Director, and now Audio Principal at Sledgehammer Games/Activision since 2010, and at Electronic Arts for 18 years before that. He is credited on 39 games.
Don started working in game audio because he had a background in both music and computer science. After starting out as an audio tools programmer at EA, he cross-faded into music and sound design.
His first game as Composer/Sound Designer was Road Rash III (Sega Genesis), and his most recent games were Dead Space (winning 20 audio awards including DICE, BAFTA, GANG, and GDC), Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (nominated for DICE, BAFTA, and winning GANG's Best Sound Design and Audio of the Year awards), and COD: WWII.
But all this is really just a hobby... he’s actually a Funk/Jazz bass player – just in case the game audio thing doesn't work out.
Don Veca
Sledgehammer, San Francisco
Audio Principle // Games
Stephen Miller, Audio Director at Infinity Ward, has worked on various Call of Duty titles since joining the studio in 2006.
Beginning his career in the games industry in 1996, Stephen worked at Interplay Entertainment as well as Shiny Entertainment where he worked on the Matrix franchise.
Stephen has worked as a sound designer on a wide range of AAA video game franchises, including the BAFTA nominated Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. His latest work as Audio Director includes Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), a recent MPSE Golden Reel winner.
Stephen Miller
Infinity Ward, Los Angeles
Audio Director // Games . .
Nat is the Audio Director at Criterion Games in Guildford, UK, where he’s been working for nearly a decade since moving from Melbourne, Australia. During that time he’s worked on such titles as ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’, ‘Battlefield V’, ‘Need for Speed Most Wanted’, and more. Outside of work he enjoys playing Tuba, Board Games, and Ice Hockey.
Nathaniel Daw
Criterion Games, UK
Audio Director // Games
TRAILER JURY
Michael Paquette has been a force in the trailer music industry since 2010. He has composed theatrical music and sound design for every major film studio and streaming service as well as original pnemonics for brands such as Youtube, AGC and more.
Beginning his career as a Music Supervisor at Trailer Park in Hollywood and then eventually as VP and Creative Director for Synchronic, he now heads Taquito Music as its creative director and lead composer. He has had a hand in over 110 major film campaigns and has won multiple awards.
Michael Paquette
Taquito Music, LA
Creative Director + Lead Composer // Trailers
Emily Weber is the Vice President / Head of Synch for the Los Angeles-based indie-publisher, Position Music. Weber is responsible for building and overseeing the nine-person synch team which is responsible for exploiting Position Music’s repertoire in Advertising, Film, Television, Trailers and Video Games worldwide.
Weber joined Position Music in 2010 and has been instrumental in expanding Position Music’s Movie Trailer, TV Promo and International Advertising business. She has A&R/Produced over 30 albums made for movie trailers. Over her 15+ years of pitching music she has become a trusted source for music supervisors, editors/producers, and creative directors throughout the industry.
After finishing Berklee College of Music as a Performance/CW&P Major (Saxophone) in 1997 and after a few years as a working musician, Weber began her synch-licensing career in 2003 at RipTide Music building their artist roster and TV/Film department. In 2008, she joined Immediate Music as Director of Operations. In 2010, Weber joined Position Music and during her tenure, the company has grown it’s revenue by over 800% and expanded its sales staff from one (just her) to a team of nine.
Weber on her promotion in May 2019: “It’s been an amazing experience to work for such a forward-thinking CEO/President, whom I respect highly and who encourages and empowers me on a daily basis. Every day I get to collaborate with the most talented artists, composers and producers in the world and I’m grateful to have the freedom to pursue my seemingly crazy ideas because pushing new boundaries is how we will evolve and grow as a company. We have an incredible synch team and it’s truly my honor to guide and champion their continued success and development.”
Emily Weber
Position Music, LA
Vice President, Head of Synch // Trailers
Veigar Margeirsson is a film score composer and co-founder & VP of Creative at Pitch Hammer Music, an LA-based music production company that specializes in theatrical marketing campaigns, motion pictures, TV shows and themes. Along with composing, Veigar oversees a team of music composers, sound designers and mixers. Pitch Hammer has custom scored music and secured licenses in hundreds of major motion picture campaigns, including recent hits such as Soul, Frozen 2, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Joker, Lion King, and Captain Marvel.
As a music composer, Veigar is regarded as an industry leader in orchestral scoring with over 2,000 combined placements in motion pictures, television, commercials and trailers. He has also has scored the several feature films and theatre productions, and won a best score award at the Badalona Film Festival in Spain in 2011, and was nominated for best score at the 2019 Iceland Music Awards for his score on Efi: dæmisaga, an Icelandic adaptation of the acclaimed Broadway play Doubt: a parable. Having a big interest in arranging since childhood, he has written arrangements for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The LA Philharmonic and The Reykjavik Big Band and more.
Veigar Margeirsson
Pitch Hammer Music, LA
Co-owner and VP Creative // Trailers .
Voted “Music Supervisor of the Year” in 2020 at AIM Sync and nominated for a Music and Sound Award for The Crown Series 3 Trailer, Emma is a freelance music supervisor and consultant, previously being the sole in-house supervisor at Create London, an award-winning creative agency.
Specialising in trailers, Emma enjoys discovering and applying unusual or unexpected tracks to really experiment and have fun with the trailer form, whilst keeping a firm handle on the necessary pacing and intensity required for these campaigns.
A composer herself and with direct experience working with editors, her music supervision always keeps an eye/ear out for ideas that can be developed or augmented and tailored to match the ‘voice’ of the client’s project or manipulated in interesting ways in the edit.
Emma Middleton
Rubato Music, UK
Music Supervisor // Trailers
Stephanie Koury
Safari Riot, LA
Head of Sync // Trailers
