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Michael Salvatori

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Michael Salvatori was born in 1954 in Elmhurst, Illinois, and is an American composer. He is best known as the partner of Martin O'Donnell in composing the music for the Halo game series. After his studies he borrowed money from the bank to build a studio in his basement in Wheaton. There he recorded his first solo album, Waiting for Autumn. During his student years he wrote music for his own rock band and became friends with O'Donnell. When O'Donnell was offered the chance in Chicago to score a colleague's film, he offered to share the work with Salvatori, who had a studio of his own. In this way they became partners and founded the company TotalAudio.

Music and breakthrough

For the studio Bungie they made the music for Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter together, and then for Halo. When O'Donnell joined Bungie as an employee in 1999, Salvatori stayed behind to manage the business side of TotalAudio. He came on board in 2009 for Halo 3: ODST, for which the team decided to make only new music, without the old Halo themes. He co-wrote the music for Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo Reach. With O'Donnell he composed Destiny from 2014, which that year won an award from the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers, and the expansions The Taken King and Rise of Iron. He also wrote music for Destiny 2 in 2017 and the expansions Forsaken, Shadowkeep, Beyond Light, The Witch Queen, Lightfall and The Final Shape.

Influence

In October 2023 he was laid off by Bungie in a round of cost-cutting. His work belongs to the game music that was also released on album, independently of the game.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track from Halo 3: ODST: Original Soundtrack and notice how it differs from the grand Halo themes: which instruments give it its own, new atmosphere?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsWestern orchestral and indie game music