Department of Music

Research Colloquia Spring 2023
The Ear Doesn’t Blink: Composing for Video Games

Speaker: Mr. Martin O’Donnell (Composer of Halo)
Moderator: Prof. Daniel Chua (Chairperson, Department of Music, HKU)

Date and Time: Wednesday, 3 May 2023, 5:30PM
[New Venue]: CPD-LG1.22 Rehearsal Room, LG1/F Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Veteran Video Game composer Martin O’Donnell will speak about creating the music and audio experience for “Halo” and the journey of becoming a video game composer. O’Donnell will explain how the iconic theme came to be, how he crafted adaptive music that morphs as players interact with the game environment, and discuss the landscape of the ever-growing video game industry.

Martin O’Donnell is an American composer, audio director, and sound designer known especially for his work on video game Halo. His score to the Halo trilogy has received critical acclaim, earning him several awards, and the commercial soundtrack release of the music to Halo 2 was the best-selling video game soundtrack of all time in the United States. In 2014, O’Donnell released The Destiny Original Soundtrack, co-written by Michael Salvatori and C. Paul Johnson, with contributions and input from famed Beatles member Paul McCartney.

Free via online registration: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=87387
For enquiries, please contact the Music Department at music@hku.hk.