Joel McNeely (born March 28, 1959) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

, arranger, musician,

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's incom ...

, and

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. A protégé of composer

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franc ...

, he is best known for his film and television scores. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for his work on '' The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles''. He frequently collaborates with

Seth MacFarlane Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series '' Family Guy'' (since 1999) and '' The Orville'' (since 2017), and co-creat ...

and contributes to various projects by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

Biography

Joel McNeely was born in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...

. Both of his parents were involved in music and theater, and as a child he played the piano, saxophone, bass, and flute. He attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, studied jazz at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

, and earned a master's degree as a composition major at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music ...

. LucasArts chose McNeely to compose the

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 ...

to the 1996 ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'' video game, '' Shadows of the Empire'', while incorporating the themes from the films by

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review '' WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

. This was an experimental project where he conveyed general moods and themes instead of writing music to flow for specific scenes. He is also known for conducting a series of re-recordings of film scores by

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely r ...

, Franz Waxman, John Barry, and other composers under the label of Varèse Sarabande, including those Herrmann wrote for '' Vertigo'', '' Psycho'' and ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...

''. He also composed the score for '' The Avengers'' and the theme and music for FOX's '' Dark Angel''. Additionally, he scored the movies '' Terminal Velocity'', '' Iron Will'' (which was used in the teaser trailer to '' Toy Story'', the theatrical trailer to '' Balto'', the direct-to-video trailer to ''Balto III: Wings of Change'', and the VHS trailer to '' Mulan''), '' Flipper'', '' Gold Diggers'', ''

Samantha Samantha (or the alternatively Samanta) is primarily used as a feminine given name. It was recorded in England in 1633 in Newton Regis, Warwickshire. It was also recorded in the 18th century in New England, but its etymology is uncertain. Spe ...

'', ''

Virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...

'', and '' I Know Who Killed Me''. He also scored a multitude of Disney animated films ('' Mulan II'', '' Return to Never Land'', '' The Jungle Book 2'', '' Tinker Bell'' and many others). Currently McNeely scores occasional episodes of the FOX animated TV series ''

American Dad! ''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first television ...

'', since the fourth season replacing Ron Jones who left to focus more on composing for '' Family Guy'', including the episode with the '' Back to the Future'' parody, and the season five premiere (among others). McNeely is also composed the score for '' Disneyland Pariss Entertainment Shows including: ''

Disney Dreams! ''Disney Dreams!'' was a nighttime spectacular at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Paris. It was designed specially for the 20th anniversary of the park and ran until 24 March 2017 after which it was replaced by '' Disney Illuminations''. Conceiv ...

'' & ''Mickey And The Magician''. McNeely has produced three of

's studio albums, including 2011's ''

Music Is Better Than Words ''Music Is Better Than Words'' is the debut studio album by American actor and singer Seth MacFarlane. The album was produced and conducted by film and television composer Joel McNeely, who is also one of the composers of ''American Dad!'', an anim ...

'', 2014's '' Holiday for Swing'', and 2017's '' In Full Swing''. In 2017, he composed a score for MacFarlane's new series, '' The Orville'', along with

Bruce Broughton Bruce Harold Broughton (born March 8, 1945) is an American orchestral composer of television, film, and video game scores and concert works. He has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career and has contributed man ...

and John Debney.

Filmography

Film

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
Interview with Joel McNeely
at FilmMusicSite.com {{DEFAULTSORT:McNeely, Joel 1959 births American classical musicians American film score composers American male film score composers American television composers Animated film score composers Animation composers Classical musicians from Wisconsin Living people Male television composers Musicians from Madison, Wisconsin Primetime Emmy Award winners University of Miami alumni