Writing a bio for myself always feels strange and awkward to me. I feel like I’ve been very fortunate in terms of what I’ve been able to work on and contribute to, but because I go back and forth between composing and making video games, I don’t know whether I should be writing a “typical composer bio” or a developer’s resume or what. But you have to start somewhere, so here’s the short form:
Born in Los Angeles, California, Courtney Evans began studying both music and computer graphics at an early age. In high school and at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, he composed concert works, incidental music for plays, and a ballet in collaboration with Donald Byrd. He went on to study composition at Juilliard, with Stephen Albert and Robert Beaser, and wrote many works including Menagerie, a large-scale song cycle for soprano and orchestra. In the field of game development, he has contributed design, art, and technology to several award-winning games, including Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. His recent focus has been on continuing his development of an emotionally direct, lyrical, and colorful composition style with underlying thematic and structural depth.