James Hannigan

In March 2020, it was announced that James Hannigan would be scoring the DC Comics and Audible adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.

In 2018 it was announced that James Hannigan had founded a new London-based conference on film, television, game and virtual reality music, to be known as Screen Music Connect.

In May 2018, it was announced that there would be a performance of Hannigan's RuneScape music by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at RuneFest 2018.

James Hannigan's other music credits include Audible's Audie Award winning Alien dramas (2016 - 2019), Unseen Academicals (Discworld 37) and the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens and Neverwhere. His music is often heard in numerous trailers and television shows, such as the BBC's Top Gear, Amazon's The Grand Tour, Netflix's 100 Humans, and Disney's The World According to Jeff Goldblum.

In 2016, Hannigan wrote a foreword for Tim Summer's book, Understanding Video Game Music, published by Cambridge University Press.

In 2015, James Hannigan wrote a series of articles on video game music for Classic FM.

In 2013 James Hannigan founded popular yearly conference Game Music Connect with friend and fellow composer and industry commentator John Broomhall, which has been described by UK radio station Classic FM (UK) as "The games music event of the year". Held each year at London’s Southbank Centre, the event has been sponsored by Sony, Bafta, Electronic Arts, COOL Music and others, and ran for three years between 2013 and 2015.

On 29 June 2012, Hannigan was interviewed in front of a live audience at the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room by presenter Tommy Pearson, as part of the BAFTA Sponsored event 'Conversations With Composers'. The event featured an overview of the composer's work and live performances from soprano, Tamara Zivadinovic.

In 2010, James Hannigan was interviewed for Tom Hoover’s book, “Soundtrack Nation: Interviews with Today's Top Professionals in Film, Videogame, and Television Scoring”.[2]

On 28 October 2010, a concert of Hannigan's music was held at St. Mary's Church, Nottingham, England. As part of the GameCity 2010 Festival, the concert featured The Pinewood Singers and soloists performing the theme of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1', pieces from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Evil Genius and other titles

Hannigan's 'Soviet March' theme from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 was performed at 'A Night in Fantasia', by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Australia on 26 September 2009. The popular track can be heard on YouTube. Other public performances include Video Games Music Live and the Games & Symphonies concert series.

In 2007, a collage of Hannigan's music entitled Welcome to Hogwarts was added to Video Games Live debuting in London at the Royal Festival Hall on 22 October 2007, and featuring the Philharmonia orchestra.

In 2004, Hannigan wrote "Changing Our Tune", a seminal cover article for the UK's Develop magazine, outlining some of the differences between scoring for games and conventional linear media forms such as film and television. It was the magazine's first audio related cover feature.

Hannigan's music scores have been nominated five times by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Hannigan won a BAFTA Award with Electronic Arts in 2000 for Sim Theme Park (UK title: Theme Park World). In 2010 his score for the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game received a BAFTA nomination and won an International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) award. In 2014, Hannigan was nominated for a Develop Award for his work on RuneScape. His other BAFTA-nominated scores include those of Republic: The Revolution, FA Premier League Manager and Evil Genius (video game).

James Hannigan (born 23 July 1971) is a multi-award winning British composer, sound designer, music producer and live event creative director. His work as a composer has included single or multiple entries in the multi-million selling Command & Conquer, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Dead Space, Warhammer, Wing Commander, Space Hulk, Evil Genius, Grand Prix and Theme Park game series; video games including Freelancer, RuneScape, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Dead Space 3, The Transformers Universe, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Republic: The Revolution, Sim Theme Park (UK title: Theme Park World), Wing Commander: Privateer 2: The Darkening, Conquest: Frontier Wars, Nintendo's Art Academy (video game), Reign of Fire, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, and others, along with television such as BBC America’s Primeval. He has also contributed music to EA Sports titles, such as those belonging to the FIFA and F1 series and his music has minimally been heard in games such as Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Saints Row 4. In the early years of his career, Hannigan worked as Composer for Electronic Arts Europe before basing his studio at Pinewood Studios in England for ten years between 1997 and 2007, where he sometimes worked as a Sound Designer on films such as Lost in Space (film) alongside composing.