Steve Burke is a British

video game composer Video game music (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 to the s ...

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 br ...

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. Aged 20, Burke moved to London and studied at music branch of

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. Then, he graduated from

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

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 (November 15, 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, record producer and musician. Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...

. 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 the

City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech: ''Filharmonici města Prahy'') is a classical orchestra, predominantly composed of Czech classical, jazz and guest musicians. The history of the orchestra goes back to the Film Symphony Orchest ...

. The game's music was well received and was nominated for several awards. He also scored ''

Viva Piñata ''Viva Piñata'' is a video game franchise created and produced by Xbox Game Studios and Rare. The series' first game, '' Viva Piñata'' (2006), was conceived as a mobile gardening game before Rare was acquired by Microsoft. It was released on ...

'' (with Grant Kirkhope), '' 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 ''Perfect Dark Zero'' is a first-person shooter developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released as a launch title for the Xbox 360 video game console in 2005. The game is part of the ''Perfect Dark'' series and a pr ...

'', '' 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. 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 and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

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

Yooka-Laylee ''Yooka-Laylee'' is a platform game developed by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. It was released for Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in April 2017, Nintendo Switch in December 2017 and Amazon Luna in October 2020. D ...

'', along with David Wise and Grant Kirkhope.

Works

;Voice acting

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Steve Rare (company) people British composers British male composers British male voice actors British video game composers 21st-century Manx musicians Living people Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the Royal College of Music Year of birth missing (living people)