Steve Burke is a British

video game composer Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led ...

sound designer In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

and voice actor. He is mostly known for his work at the British video game developer Rare.

Background and career

Burke was involved with music from early age. At home his family had a piano, which Burke played nearly every day. He also was playing the clarinet at Manx Youth Orchestra. At age of 20, Burke moved to London and studied at music branch of King's College London. Then, he graduated from

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

with a master's degree. At college, Burke often went to film recording sessions where he met such the masters of orchestra such as

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 ...

and

Michael Kamen Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician. Biography Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born ...

. After college he was composing for films about a year before he was recruited by video game giant Rare in early 2001. He firstly provided additional music for '' Star Fox Adventures'', but his first major and most successful work at the studio was the soundtrack for 2005 game '' Kameo: Elements of Power''. The soundtrack was scored with Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The game's music was well received and was nominated for several awards. He also scored '' Viva Piñata'' (with

Grant Kirkhope Grant Kirkhope is a Scottish-American composer and voice actor for video games and film. Some of his notable works include ''GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game), GoldenEye 007'', ''Banjo-Kazooie (video game), Banjo-Kazooie'', ''Donkey Kong 64'', an ...

), '' Jetpac Refuelled'', '' Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise'' (with David Wise) and '' Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise'' (again with Kirkhope). Aside from soundtracks, Burke also made sound effects for '' Perfect Dark Zero'', '' Conker: Live and Reloaded'' and '' Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts''. He also had done additional voice acting for all games above. In August 2009, Burke left Rare. In November 2010, Burke created all sound and music for

Xbox Live Avatars Xbox Avatars are avatars and characters that represent users of the Xbox Live service on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S video game consoles, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile. Avatars originally debuted on the Xbox 360 as p ...

. The work was done as a part of his former relationship with Rare, who were bought out by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

in 2002. Most recently Burke co-composed music for ex-Rare developers Playtonic Games in ''

Yooka-Laylee ''Yooka-Laylee'' is a platform game published by Team17 in 2017 for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, followed by a version for Amazon Luna in October 2020. Developed by Playtonic Games, a group of former key ...

'', along with David Wise and

Works

;Voice acting

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Steve Rare (company) people British composers British male composers British male voice actors Video game composers Manx people Living people Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the Royal College of Music Year of birth missing (living people)