During his career to date, Zur has composed the music to over 40 video games, 15 television shows, and 10 movies, as well as many movie trailers. He has been nominated for numerous awards, and has won three—a Telly Award in 1997 for Best Score on Power Rangers: Turbo, a Game Audio Network Guild award in 2004 for Best Original Instrumental track for Men of Valor, and a Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2009 for Best Original Song – Video Game for Dragon Age: Origins.
Inon Zur was born in Israel. As early as five years old, he was trying to compose harmonies with his mother's singing, and became inspired by classical music. He learned to play French horn as a child, studied piano by the age of eight, and was studying composition by the age of ten. He graduated from the Music Academy of Tel Aviv, and spent four years in the Israeli military. Zur feels that this military experience matured him as a person and taught him to appreciate life and work hard at what he does. He moved to the United States in 1990 to study at the Dick Grove School of Music for a year, and then under private tutor Jack Smalley, a television music composer, and others for two years at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Career[]
Zur began his career in 1994 by working on soundtracks for movies, such as Yellow Lotus, featured at the Sundance Film Festival. He then signed on to compose for Fox Family for six years, and made soundtracks for various children's television shows, including Digimon and Power Rangers. By 2002 he estimated that he had composed the soundtrack to over 360 Power Rangers episodes alone. He won his first award during this period in his career, a Telly Award for his work on Power Rangers: Turbo. While he enjoyed the work, he began to want to go work somewhere "more intriguing, more advanced, and basically a place that people really appreciate music more"; his agent overcame his initial reluctance and convinced him to work in the video games industry. His first video game soundtrack was 2000's Star Trek: Klingon Academy, though he started composing for the game in 1997. Zur quickly moved on to prestigious titles, composing for the award-winning and critically acclaimed Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal in 2001 and Icewind Dale II in 2002, among many others. Icewind Dale II earned him the first of many nominations for video game music awards, that of the Game Audio Network Guild's Music of the Year award. He continued to work on movies and television programs during these years, composing the soundtrack to Au Pair in 1999 and the English version of the 2000 anime series Escaflowne.
Zur's latest movie soundtrack to date was that of 2001's Au Pair II. He has worked on a few television series since then; his last traditional television soundtrack was for The Bachelor in 2002, though he has composed music for three webisode series since then. He continued to work on numerous best-selling video games, including Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones in 2005 and Crysis in 2007. He has also garnered several nominations for video game music awards, including his first win, for Men of Valor in the Best Original Instrumental track category of the 2004 Game Audio Network Guild awards. His latest released titles have been the highly successful Fallout 3 and Prince of Persia in 2008, and 2009's Dragon Age: Origins and the Nintendo DS version of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game. He is currently working on the soundtracks to several unreleased video games, and continues to live in Encino, California. Dragon Age has earned Zur his third career award, that of "Best Original Song – Video Game" in the 2009 Hollywood Music In Media Awards.
