John Paesano
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John Paesano (born July 2, 1977) is an American composer working primarily in film, television and video games. He is known for collaborating with director
Wes Ball Wes Ball (born October 28, 1980) is an American film director, visual effects artist and graphic artist. He is best known for directing the ''Maze Runner'' film trilogy, based on James Dashner's series of novels of the same name. Ball's next fi ...
on the '' Maze Runner'' film series, as well as composing for the
Marvel Television Marvel Television was an American television production company responsible for live-action and animated (through Marvel Animation) television shows and direct-to-DVD series based on characters from Marvel Comics. The division was based at affi ...
series ''Daredevil'' and '' The Defenders.'' As a video game composer, he has contributed music to the acclaimed titles, '' Detroit Become Human'', ''
Marvel's Spider-Man Marvel's Spider-Man may refer to: * Spider-Man, a fictional Marvel Comics superhero * ''Spider-Man'' (2017 TV series), an animated series produced by Marvel Animation * ''Spider-Man'' (video game series), a series of action-adventure video games ...
'' and '' Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales''. For his work on ''Miles Morales'', Paesano won the BAFTA for Best music in a video game.


Biography

Paesano was born in Detroit. He first studied classical music at
Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
located in
Parc de la Villette The Parc de la Villette is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues in Paris, including the Cité d ...
, France before continuing his studies at
Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
pursuing a major in musical composition and film scoring. John knew from the age of nine years old, he wanted to become a music composer. He then worked under composers
Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franc ...
and
John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...
providing additional music for the former, and orchestrating for the latter. Paesano cites
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Sp ...
's 1987 film ''
Empire of the Sun ''Empire of the Sun'' is a 1984 novel by English writer J. G. Ballard; it was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Like Ballard's earlier short story "The Dead Time" (published in the anthology ...
'' as his motivation for getting into film scoring. In 2014, Paesano was hired to compose the music for ''
The Maze Runner ''The Maze Runner'' is a 2009 young adult dystopian science fiction novel written by American author James Dashner and the first book released in ''The Maze Runner'' series. The novel was published on October 6, 2009, by Delacorte Press, an ...
''. Speaking of the job, he recalled seeing
Wes Ball Wes Ball (born October 28, 1980) is an American film director, visual effects artist and graphic artist. He is best known for directing the ''Maze Runner'' film trilogy, based on James Dashner's series of novels of the same name. Ball's next fi ...
's 2011 short film, ''Ruin'' and was intrigued by it, composing a short demo (which eventually would become the "Maze Runner" theme) for Ball. He visited the sets in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
, observing the "environmental soundscape" and tried to incorporate the natural sounds into his score. He recorded the score with an orchestra at the Newman Scoring Stage with sessions running for 2 weeks. Paesano would later return to score the 2nd and 3rd film of the series, '' Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials'' and '' Maze Runner: The Death Cure''. Paesano was later tasked with composing the score to ''
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...
'' developed by
Insomniac Games Insomniac Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Burbank, California and a studio of PlayStation Studios. It was founded in 1994 by Ted Price as Xtreme Software, and was renamed Insomniac Games a year later. The company is m ...
, joining the game's development in the early stages. He worked with game director Bryan Intihar and brought about creating several character themes, emphasising the need for the music to be its "own character" in the game. Paesano ensured that his music struck a balance between the cinematics and the gameplay as he wanted the player to be fully immersed. He looked at distinguishing his music from past ''Spider-Man'' films and games and decided to focus on creating a musical identity for Peter Parker. In 2021, he composed the music for the
Avengers Campus Avengers Campus is a Marvel Cinematic Universe–themed area located at Disney California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park in Disneyland Paris, and being developed for Hong Kong Disneyland. The Marvel-themed areas or "lands" are being dev ...
themed area at
Disney California Adventure Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...
, combining themes from the MCU's '' Avengers'', ''
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...
'', ''
Doctor Strange Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as Sorce ...
'', ''
Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It may more specifically refer to: Comic book teams * Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), the original 31st-century team fr ...
'', ''
Ant-Man Ant-Man is the name of several superheroes appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, Ant-Man's first appearance was in ''Tales to Astonish'' #27 (January 1962) but first appeared in cost ...
'', '' Captain Marvel'', and ''
Black Panther A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical rosettes are also present. They have been ...
'' films; a single entitled "Welcome Recruits" was released in April 2022.


Filmography


Film


Television


Video games


Theme park attractions


Awards


References


External links

*
John Paesano
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Paesano, John 1977 births 21st-century American composers 21st-century classical composers American classical composers American film score composers American male classical composers American male film score composers American television composers Animation composers Berklee College of Music alumni Classical musicians from Michigan Conservatoire de Paris alumni Hollywood Records artists Living people Male television composers Musicians from Detroit Video game composers