Austin Wintory

Lore & Background

Austin Wintory was born in Denver, Colorado in 1984 and started learning piano when he was ten years old, after his teacher introduced him to composer Jerry Goldsmith. Before the age of ten, Wintory did not play any instruments and barely listened to music. By the age of sixteen, Wintory started writing for and conducting the Cherry Creek High School Orchestra during their performances of the 'Spirit of the Cosmos' pieces. Two years later, at the age of eighteen, Wintory conducted the Utah Symphony during its recording of 'Cosmos', which became one of his most popular projects, although he refers to it as 'atrocious garbage'. Since 2003, Wintory has composed over three hundred musical scores. He met Jenova Chen while both attended the University of Southern California (USC). After networking with an interactive media student at USC and scoring a small game project, his name was passed along to Chen, who asked Wintory to score his thesis project, Flow, later re-released on PlayStation Network. Wintory, Chen and Nick Clarke developed the first version of Flow as a three-man team. Wintory considered the music of Flow radically unlike any he had written before. He regards the pink area of the game, where the player controls a jellyfish-like creature, as the humorous area of the game, describing his music for it as almost 'circus-like' compared to the overall soundtrack. Wintory also composed the score for Monaco after convincing developer Andy Schatz that he could create an original score fitting the project's vision. Wintory will compose the music and conduct a live orchestra for a touring BAFTA Games in Concert, to start in 2026 and featuring music from winners of the British Academy Games Awards.

In Their Own Story

The wind carries a melody composed by Austin Wintory across the digital meadow. As petals swirl upward, his rhythmic strings accelerate, mirroring the player's momentum. The soundscape breathes with the environment he designed, turning every movement into a musical phrase that fades gently into silence as the flight ends.

Reader's Guide

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Did You Know?

• Austin Wintory's soundtrack for Journey was the only video game soundtrack to date to be nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
• Wintory started learning piano at age ten after his teacher introduced him to composer Jerry Goldsmith.
• He conducted the Utah Symphony at age eighteen for a recording he later called 'atrocious garbage'.
• Wintory composed the score for Flow, a thesis project by Jenova Chen, as part of a three-man team.

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