Peter Nelson McConnell (born April 19, 1960), also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician. He is best known for his work at

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...

and for composing the soundtracks for every ''

Sly Cooper ''Sly Cooper'' is a series of stealth action-adventure video games created by Sucker Punch Productions and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series follows the adventures of Sly Cooper, an anthropomorphic raccoon and master thief ...

'' game since the second installment.

Early life and education

McConnell was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, Pennsylvania. He studied music as an undergraduate at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in the 1980s under Timothy Vincent Clarke, Curt Cacioppo and

Ivan Tcherepnin Ivan Alexandrovich Tcherepnin (Russian: ''Иван Александрович Черепнин'') (February 5, 1943 in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France – April 11, 1998 in Boston, USA) was an experimental, then later modernist/postmodernist, composer ...

. At Harvard, McConnell befriended the future LucasArts composer Michael Land, who composed many of the company's titles, and worked with him at the audio company

Lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

Career

While beginning his career in the Sound Department at LucasArts, Land needed someone to compose and implement music into his second project, '' Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge,'' and McConnell stepped in. McConnell and Land co-invented

iMUSE iMUSE (''Interactive Music Streaming Engine'') is an interactive music system used in a number of LucasArts video games. The idea behind iMUSE is to synchronize music with the visual action in a video game so that the audio continuously matches ...

, LucasArts' patented interactive music system. During his time at LucasArts, McConnell composed many soundtracks for games such as those in the

Monkey Island ''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth was developed by Telltale Games with LucasArts, while the sixth was developed by Terribl ...

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels, that depicts the adventures of Indiana Jones (character), Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, ...

, and

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

series. Notable titles from this time include ''

Grim Fandango ''Grim Fandango'' is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static backgro ...

'', scored with unique Mexican-influenced jazz, klezmer and traditional film score style, and '' Full Throttle'', featuring a rock soundtrack, which McConnell scored with rock group The Gone Jackals. While composing music for these two games, McConnell worked closely with Tim Schafer, who later hired him to compose scores for ''

Psychonauts ''Psychonauts'' is a 2005 platformer, platform game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Xbox (console), Xbox and PlayStation 2. Set in a Retrofuturism, retro-futuristic version of t ...

'', '' Brütal Legend'', and '' Costume Quest'' for his company Double Fine Productions. McConnell left LucasArts in 2000 but contributed to '' Escape from Monkey Island'' and the special edition of '' The Secret of Monkey Island''. Since then, McConnell has composed scores for ''

'', '' Sly 2: Band of Thieves'', '' Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves'' (about which McConnell says he was influenced by

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, ...

's works), and '' Kinectimals''. McConnell is one of the founding members of G.A.N.G., the Game Audio Network Guild. He is also a known live-action music performer, playing the

electric violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

. In 2013, McConnell returned to the ''Sly Cooper'' franchise to score the fourth game, '' Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time'', released in February of that year. The Nashville Music Scoring Orchestra performed the score. Also, for the first time ever, McConnell's entire score was released on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

to accompany the game's release. McConnell worked on the Double Fine titles '' Broken Age'' and the remastered version of ''

'', both of which include performances by the

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on fun ...

. He scored the 2021 '' Psychonauts 2'', for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award and a D.I.C.E. Award. He also wrote music for the 2020 film '' Intersect''.

Personal life

He married Amy McConnell and they have two children, Eben and Alice.

Works

;Video game soundtracks ;Film ;Acting

Written works

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McConnell, Peter 1960 births American male musicians Harvard University alumni Living people Lucasfilm people American video game composers Electric violinists Double Fine people