Soundtracking Hell: The Music of Diablo

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) and The Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) present:

Soundtracking Hell: The Music of Diablo

Featuring Russell Brower, SCL Board Member, Director of Audio/Video for Blizzard Entertainment (Moderator), and Guests: Derek Duke, Joseph Lawrence, Glenn Stafford, Jason Hayes and Neal Acree

An entire generation of gamers has spent its nights and weekends in the fantasy realm of Sanctuary, the setting of Blizzard Entertainment’s blockbuster video game franchise Diablo. Central to the incredible success of the series is its music. The composers and sound designers in this seminar carefully craft the music behind every moment of gameplay, utilizing orchestras, choirs and cutting-edge technology to fill out the game’s immersive world. Having released Diablo III: Reaper of Souls earlier this year, these sonic sorcerers will explain how they make battling evil sound so good.

Neal Acree is an award winning film, television and video game composer whose work includes over 30 feature films, the series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, contributions to the Blizzard Entertainment video game franchises World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo as well as international conducting appearances with Video Games Live.

Russell Brower is an American music composer and three-time Emmy Award-winning sound designer who has created sounds for Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and Batman: The Animated Series and video game music for Joint Operations, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and more recently, Diablo III and Starcraft II. Currently the Director of Audio/Video for Blizzard Entertainment, he previously worked as sound designer/editor at Warner Bros. Animation and DiC Entertainment, the Audio Director at NovaLogic and the Principal Media Designer at Walt Disney Imagineering. “Invincible”, from his score for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, made its first appearance in the Classic FM Hall of Fame Top 300 in April 2014 at no 52.

Jason Hayes is well known for his long-standing relationship with Blizzard Entertainment, contributing music to their games set in the popular worlds of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. He was the lead composer of the original release of World of Warcraft, the most successful online game in the world. Jason’s music has been performed by symphony orchestras all over the world in various concerts including the touring show “Video Games Live”, which debuted at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic to a crowd of 11,000 people. He’s also been a featured speaker for UCLA, USC, the Film Music Network, ASCAP, Game Developers Conference, and the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program.

Glenn Stafford began working for Blizzard Entertainment in 1993. Over the years he has composed music for many Blizzard titles, including the WarCraft, Diablo and StarCraft series of games, and he is currently lead composer for a new Blizzard game, “Heroes of the Storm”.  Glenn started playing piano and taking lessons at an early age, and continued his music education through adulthood. Eventually he attended the Dick Grove School of Music in Studio City, CA, completing courses in keyboard performance, acoustic and electronic composing/arranging, and recording engineering.