Peter McConnell

McConnell was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He studied music as an undergraduate at Harvard University in the 1980s under Timothy Vincent Clarke, Curt Cacioppo and Ivan Tcherepnin. At Harvard, McConnell befriended the future LucasArts composer Michael Land,^[1] 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 to compose and implement music into his second project, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and McConnell stepped in.^[2] McConnell and Land co-invented iMUSE, LucasArts' patented interactive music system.^[3]

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 a 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 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 the 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 he was influenced by Henry Mancini's works),^[4] and Kinectimals.

McConnell is one of the founding members of G.A.N.G., the Game Audio Network Guild. He is also a known live-action music performer, playing the electric violin.^{[citation needed]}

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

McConnell 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 scored the 2021 Psychonauts 2, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award^[5] and a D.I.C.E. Award.^[6] He also wrote music for the 2020 film Intersect.^[7]

He married Amy McConnell and they have two children, Eben and Alice.

Video game soundtracks

Film

Acting

• McConnell, Peter (September 1999). "Dance of the Dead: The Adventures of a Composer Creating the Game Music for Grim Fandango". Electronic Musician. 15 (9). New York: NewBay Media, LLC: 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]