|
     |
Annual Game Music Awards of 2010 :: Best Artist Winners
In collaboration with our partners GameMusic.net, SEMO is proud to present the winners of the 'best artist' category in the Annual Game Music Awards 2010. These panel-voted officially recognised awards provide a thorough and wide-reaching recognition of achievement in game music over the last year. Congratulations to all winners, runners-up, and nominees.
Outstanding Contribution by Composer — Eastern :: Yoko Shimomura
Yoko Shimomura's music experienced a renaissance this year, as she produced a deep well-rounded scores for Last Ranker and memorable main themes for Xenoblade, between revisiting the worlds of Parasite Eve and Kingdom Hearts.
Runner-Up
Go Shiina
Other Nominations
Masashi Hamauzu
Shigeki Hayashi
Rei Kondoh
Jun Senoue
Masafumi Takada
Shohei Tsuchiya
Nobuo Uematsu
Ippo Yamada
Outstanding Contribution by Composer — Western :: Garry Schyman
With a highbrow sequel soundtrack (BioShock 2), a daring international collaboration (Front Mission Evolved), and an incredible melange of horror and opera (Dante's Inferno), Garry Schyman's artistic achievements in game music were superlative throughout 2010.
Runner-Up
Tom Salta
Other Nominations
Russell Brower
Marc Canham
Jason Graves
James Hannigan
Steve Jablonsky
Kevin Manthei
Mike Reagan
Jack Wall
Most Significant Breakout :: Masashi Hamauzu
2010 was the year when veteran Masashi Hamauzu finally gained widespread popular recognition, with the tremendous commercial and critical success of Final Fantasy XIII, and great industry demand following his successful transition from in-house composer to freelancer.
Runner-Up
Rei Kondoh
Other Nominations
Ramin Djawadi
James Dooley
Sean Murray
Richard Jacques
Rei Kondoh
Tomori Kudo
Mitsuto Suzuki
Masafumi Takada
Most Promising Newcomer :: Bear McCreary
In a notable crossover from television to video game music, Battlestar Galactica's Bear McCreary brought his unique brand of dramatic science-fiction music to Dark Void, while showing a genuine passion for gaming classics and chiptunes on its 8-bit spinoff.
Runner-Up
Masahiro Aoki
Other Nominations
Petri Alanko
Normand Corbeil
Keigo Hoashi
Manami Kiyota
Geoff Knorr
Oleksa Lozowchuk
Erina Niwa
Kazuki Yanagawa
Special Achievement Awards — Eastern :: Haruhisa Tanaka (aka hally)
Fan turned professional Haruhisa Tanaka (better known as hally) has produced chiptune compositions and remixes since the 1980s. He has been a major promoter of the chiptune scene both in Japan and overseas, credited with founding the multilingual website VORC.
In recent years, he been central for promoting excellent game music in recent years. His diverse activities including producing digital and physical record releases for Egg Music Records, co-administering the sound creator's alliance GE-ON-DAN, and headlining diverse remix activities.
Already appreciated by composers and game companies across Japan, it is time for this behind-the-scenes force to receive some public recognition too.
Special Achievement Awards — Western :: Clint Bajakian
Clint Bajakian has pioneered production of realistic and dramatic game audio for many years. As a musician at LucasArts from 1991, he initially made an impact scoring Outlaws and Star Wars spinoffs, creating some of the first scores with filmic production values.
After leaving LucasArts, Bajakian engaged in a number of freelance projects through Bay Area Sound and Tommy Tallarico Studios. He currently leads sound production of franchises such as God of War and inFAMOUS for Sony Computer Entertainment America.
Having influenced many scores, composers, and companies, Bajakian deserves recognition as one of the main driving forces in the evolution of video game music.
