Daniel Licht (March 13, 1957 – August 2, 2017) was an American

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

composer and musician, best known for writing the score of Showtime TV drama series ''

Dexter Dexter may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Dexter, the main character of the American animated series '' Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003 * Dexter, a fictional character in the British web series ''Diary of a Bad Man'' * Dext ...

''.

Life and career

Licht grew up in suburban Detroit and attended the Roeper School, as well as summer school 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 ...

in Boston. He started playing music at the age of eight with his first instrument being the clarinet. He took up the guitar four years later. He began his musical career while still in high school playing guitar with a small jazz ensemble at clubs in the area. Following high school graduation, he attended

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...

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and graduated in

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and world music. Licht moved to New York City and established himself as a musical artist in the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

creative music scene. He would travel to Germany, the

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and Northern Europe to perform and compose music for theatre and dance companies. He created scores for such companies as

Mercedes Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

He then moved to Los Angeles and pursued a career in film scoring, at the suggestion of his former classmate,

Christopher Young Christopher Young (born April 28, 1957) is an American composer and orchestrator of film and television scores. Many of his compositions are for horror and thriller films, including '' Hellraiser'', ''Species'', ''Urban Legend'', '' The Grudge ...

. His first major project was the 1991 feature film '' Children of the Night''. His composition earned him his first soundtrack CD release. Licht scored all seasons of ''

'', which he considered to be one of his "more visible projects", but was reluctant to refer to it as his big break. From 2012 to 2015 he was the main composer of the ''

Silent Hill is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four video games in the series, '' Silent Hill'', ''Silent Hill 2'', ''Silent Hill 3'' and '' ...

'' video game series, replacing

Akira Yamaoka is a Japanese composer and music producer. He is best known for composing music for several video games in the '' Silent Hill'' series by Konami, among other games. Yamaoka also worked as a producer on the series, as well as composing for the ' ...

, until

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...

decided to pull away from the home console

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...

, effectively ending the ''Silent Hill'' series. He also composed the soundtrack for the 2012 video game ''

Dishonored ''Dishonored'' is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, ''Dishonored'' follows the story of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to th ...

'' and its 2016

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

. '' Dishonored: Death of the Outsider'' (for which he also composed and was released posthumously) was dedicated to his memory. Licht died of

sarcoma A sarcoma is a malignant tumor, a type of cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal ( connective tissue) origin. Connective tissue is a broad term that includes bone, cartilage, fat, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues, and sar ...

at his home in Topanga, California, at the age of 60. Licht was assisted by his nephew Jon for his work on ''Dexter'', ''Dishonored'', and ''Silent Hill''.

Works

Film

Television series

Video games

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Licht, Daniel 1957 births 2017 deaths American film score composers American television composers Silent Hill Video game composers Hampshire College alumni American male film score composers Male television composers Musicians from Detroit Deaths from cancer in California