Winifred Phillips


Winifred Phillips is an American music composer and author. Her music composition credits include God of War, , and the LittleBigPlanet series. Phillips works with music producer Winnie Waldron.

Early life

Phillips' love of music began in childhood, supported by her experiences in the public school system. “I had so many wonderful music teachers. I definitely looked up to them," Phillips shared in an interview on GameSpot, "and I'd count the minutes until my next music class would begin. In middle school, my band teacher found out that I was a quick learner and got into the habit of giving me a new instrument to learn whenever there was a gap in one of his ensembles. I got to play all sorts of music and all different kinds of instruments.”
Phillips had been an avid gamer in her childhood. "I’ve always loved video games, ever since I was a kid. I’d played everything from shooters and side-scrollers to sprawling RPGs," Phillips said in an interview with NZGamer. "It didn’t occur to me right away that I could compose music for games – that happened after I’d been working in radio for a while."

Career

Early career

From 1992 to 2003, Phillips was the composer, producer and actress in a series of radio dramas, first presented on National Public Radio Playhouse under the title Generations Radio Theater Presents, and then later as Generations Radio Theater Presents: Radio Tales. This anthology series adapted classic works of American and world literature, and was a recipient of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The series was described by National Public Radio as "featuring a top-to-bottom music score that is completely original and fully integrated to the text". The programs aired regularly as the Radio Tales series on the Sirius XM Book Radio channel of Sirius XM Satellite Radio.

Video games

In 2004, Phillips contributed music to her first video game project, God of War. The music of God of War received five Game Audio Network Guild Awards, including Music of the Year. She quickly followed this debut with musical scores for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Da Vinci Code games, published by 2K Games. After this, Phillips composed the music for the Shrek the Third video game for Activision.
Phillips' music for the Speed Racer game for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment was named a finalist in the Hollywood Music Awards. After creating the music for The Maw XBLA game for Twisted Pixel Games, Phillips went on to create the music for two projects for the Maxis division of Electronic Arts: Spore Hero, and SimAnimals. Her music for Spore Hero was a finalist for The International Film Music Critics Award and the Hollywood Music in Media Award.
Phillips won a Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2010 for her music for the ' video game, published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Her music for Legend of the Guardians was also a finalist for The International Film Music Critics Award.
In 2011, Phillips began creating music for the LittleBigPlanet video game franchise for Media Molecule / Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. To date, she has created music for LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet 2: Cross Controller, LittleBigPlanet 2: Toy Story , LittleBigPlanet Karting, LittleBigPlanet PS Vita and LittleBigPlanet 3.
Phillips wrote the music for the ' video game, published by Ubisoft. The soundtrack album of Assassin's Creed III: Liberation was released by Ubisoft Music on October 30, 2012. Together with music producer Winnie Waldron, Winifred Phillips won several awards for her work on this project. For the music composition of the Assassin's Creed III Liberation video game, Phillips won a Global Music Award for musical excellence. Winifred Phillips and Winnie Waldron won a 2012 Hollywood Music in Media Award and a GameFocus Award for the music score for Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. The main theme music of the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation video game won a G.A.N.G. Award from the Game Audio Network Guild in the category of "Best Original Vocal Song - Choral."' The music of Assassin's Creed III Liberation also received nominations in several year-end award competitions, including the GameZone Awards, the Best of IGN Awards, and the G4TV X-Play Best of 2012 Awards.
On November 4, 2014, one of Phillips' tracks for the LittleBigPlanet 3 game, entitled "LittleBigPlanet 3 Ziggurat Theme," won a Hollywood Music in Media Award in the category of "Best Song for a Video Game." LittleBigPlanet 2 was a 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards finalist in the category of "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition". LittleBigPlanet 2 was also a 2011 Game Developers Choice Awards finalist in the category of "Best Audio", which recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game - including musical composition, orchestration, sound design, sound effects, etc. The 10th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards nominated the original music track "Victoria's Lab" from LittleBigPlanet 2 in the category of "Best Original Vocal - Pop". Kotaku named the score of LittleBigPlanet 2 as one of the best video game soundtracks of the year. In the article "The Best Game Music of 2011: LittleBigPlanet 2", Features Editor Kirk Hamilton praised both the collection of licensed tracks and the original score, singling out the music of composer Winifred Phillips as his favorite original music of the game.
Phillips is one of the composers for the Total War Battles: KINGDOM video game, developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega.
In 2016, Phillips composed music for the videogame, developed by DS Dambuster and published by Deep Silver.

Albums

Phillips' music has been released in several commercial soundtracks. The LittleBigPlanet 3 soundtrack album was released by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe on January 27, 2015.
The soundtrack album for the video game was released by Ubisoft Music on the same day as the release of the Assassin's Creed III: Liberation video game, October 30, 2012.
On October 26, 2010, the Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole video game soundtrack album was released by WaterTower Music, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. The second track on the album, "With Hearts Sublime", is a winner of a 2010 Hollywood Music in Media Award in the category "Best Original Song - Video Game".
On January 13, 2009, the SimAnimals soundtrack album was released in digital download form by E.A.R.S. EA Recordings.
The soundtrack album of the videogame Spore Hero was released by E.A.R.S. EA Recordings on October 6, 2009.
In 2007, Phillips worked with her music producer Winnie Waldron to create a cover version of the theme song from the Super Mario Bros. video game for the compilation CD entitled Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music, Volume I, initially released by GameMusicCentral, and now distributed by the Sumthing Else Music Works record label.
In 2012, Associated Production Music released three albums featuring Phillips' music: "Dark Times", "Magical Realms" and "Investigation and Pursuit".
The Directors Cuts label of Extreme Music has released seven albums featuring Phillips' music, including "Epic Themes 3" and "Christmas Fantasy".
Phillips' music was featured in 2014 on the "Ultimate Trailers" album released by the West One Music Group.

Writing

Phillips is the author of the book A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, which was published by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press in March 2014. The book has won a Global Music Award Gold Medal for exceptional achievement in the field of music, an Annual Game Music Award in the category of "Publication, Broadcast, or Film," an Annual National Indie Excellence Book Award, and a Nonfiction Book Award from the Nonfiction Authors Association.
A Composer’s Guide to Game Music was very well received by critics such as Jon Burlingame of The Film Music Society, Sound on Sound Magazine, Music Connection Magazine, Retro Videogame Magazine, and Film Score Monthly. On August 26, 2015, O'Reilly Japan published the Japanese language edition of A Composer's Guide to Game Music.

Awards

Video games