The Journey of the Composer: Meet the Masters

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"....an unbelievably versatile composer with a limitless future"- Martin O'Donnell, 2014

Elliot Leung's upbringing was influenced by the American composer Martin O'Donnell's modal music from Halo. Mentored by Martin O'Donnell, Elliot Leung gets into the industry that once seemed so elusive. He also becomes the first and only composer to breakthrough from Hong Kong to Hollywood. Let's meet the masters and discover how musicians pursue their careers.

Martin O'Donnell earned his Masters of Music Degree in Composition with honors from USC in 1981. He then founded the Chicago-based commercial music and sound production company, TotalAudio, writing and producing numerous film scores and jingles such as Flintstones Kids and Mr. Clean. In 1997 he created sound design for Cyan’s Riven, the Sequel to Myst, and created all of the audio for Bungie’s award-winning Myth series.

In the spring of 2000, ten days after Marty accepted a position as Bungie’s Audio Director and Composer, Microsoft purchased the studio and moved them to Redmond so they could focus their efforts on developing Halo for the launch of the Xbox. The highly acclaimed Halo series became extremely successful, with Halo 3 shattering entertainment records for both single day and first week sales. The total number of Halo games played now tallied in the billions and unit sales in excess of eighty-one million.

The audio and music for the Halo series has received numerous honors and awards, including the Game Developers Choice Award, the Edge Award, Rolling Stone Magazine’s Best Game Soundtrack, and Best Sound/Music from the AIAS, IGDA, GANG, TEC, and Spike TV. The critically acclaimed soundtracks, produced in partnership with Nile Rodgers, are also best sellers.

In July of 2007, Marty helped to lead Bungie in regaining its independence. His final project with them, Destiny, featured music in collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney. The stand-alone soundtrack, Music of the Spheres, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. In addition to creating and overseeing sound design, music, and implementation, Marty also did the casting and directing of all the voice acting for Bungie’s games. The music and audio from Destiny have won several awards including Best Audio and Best Music from the AIAS. He was awarded GANG’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

Marty is co-founder and co-owner of Highwire Games in Seattle. Their first title, Golem, an exclusive title for PlayStation VR was released in 2019. He also composed and produced Echoes of the First Dreamer, the musical prequel to Golem. He has been happily married for 45 years, has 2 daughters and 2 grandsons.

Elliot Leung is the first and only composer to breakthrough from Hong Kong to Hollywood. He has composed the score for 3 of the top 10 highest-grossing non-English films with his films grossing over $2 billion USD, making him one of the highest grossing composers in Asia.  His music has been described as being "audio-graphically visual" by The Standard, and being able to "invigorate life" by Film Inquiry. The South China Morning Post observed Mr. Leung as "a seasoned composer who enhances the magic of cinema."

Leung received early musical training at age 5 in the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. As a result of his musical excellence, he was selected to perform in the CCTV show "Charming China Youth Arts Festival (亞洲藝術盛典 · 魅力中國)" during his secondary school years. He went on to study music composition at the Wheaton Conservatory of Music on scholarship where he was taught and mentored by renowned composer Martin O’Donnell. In 2017, he gave up his pursuits in graduate studies at the University of Southern California when he was scouted and named as lead composer of Operation Red Sea. In addition to his composition career, Leung was also appointed as the first Chairman of the Young Patrons Committee of the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2022.

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The views and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and participants and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, do not reflect the opinion, position or official policy of Asia Society Hong Kong, its members, or its committees. Asia Society Hong Kong does not endorse or approve and assumes no responsibility for the content of the information presented.