New Harmonix Disney game makes composers out of Xbox players.
Disney Interactive and Harmonix Music Systems have teamed up with award-winning composer Inon Zur to develop original music for the game Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, a new musical motion video game inspired by Walt Disney’s classic animated film Fantasia. To celebrate this announcement, Zur conducted some of the orchestral classics that will appear in Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved with the Disney Chamber Ensemble at Disney’s D23 Expo, the ultimate Disney fan event.
Zur, a Hollywood Music Award winning and BAFTA nominated composer, is internationally renowned for his emotionally dynamic orchestral music scores featured in film, television and interactive entertainment. Zur’s rich portfolio includes epic action/adventure and fantasy scores for major video game franchises including Prince of Persia, The Lord of the Rings (Classical MPR 2011 Best Video Game Soundtracks), Dragon Age (Hollywood Music Award Winner), EverQuest and Fallout, which earned him British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Spike TV Video Game Awards nominations for Best Original Music (Fallout 3).
“Working with a versatile composer like Inon Zur was critical to developing the innovative type of gameplay we are introducing with Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved,” said Eran Egozy, co-founder and chief technical officer of Harmonix Music Systems. “Zur’s innate understanding of music’s role in gaming allowed us to create original arrangements that will let players experience music like never before.”
Zur composed, conducted and produced many of the original orchestral themes for the game and collaborated closely with Disney Interactive and Harmonix to produce innovative new recordings of classical symphonies by the great composers including Mussorgsky and Vivaldi. He also produced and arranged the orchestral version of Queen’s iconic rock opera Bohemian Rhapsody for the game. Zur recently recorded these classical songs for Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved with the London Symphony Orchestra and The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at Abbey Road.
