ABOUT

Dr Alexander Horowitz is a game audio director and composer based in South East England. He is the Audio Director at Improbable in London, UK, and was previously the Audio Lead at Studio Gobo in Brighton and Hove, directing the European audio team on Hogwarts Legacy, and contributing to its Grammy Award-nominated original score.

Prior to his work on Hogwarts Legacy, Alexander was the Head of Audio at Imaginati Studios, the games division of Andy Serkis' Imaginarium in London, and also worked on well-known AAA games including Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA V: Online at Rockstar North, and Madden NFL 17 for Electronic Arts.

Having initially trained as a composer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Alexander received a BAFTA New Talent nomination for the short film ‘Room 9’ in 2011 and graduated from the BMus (Hons) Composition programme in 2013. At the Glasgow School of Art, he graduated from the MDes Sound for the Moving Image programme in 2015 and the MSc Serious Games and Virtual Reality programme in 2016, and successfully defended his PhD in Game Development in 2022.

Alexander is in demand as a guest lecturer and public speaker on the topics of game development, audio, and accessible design. He has spoken at numerous universities, colleges, schools, and conferences, and presented the Audio Engineering Society’s Christmas Keynote 2021, as well as at Audiokinetic’s Wwise Tour 2023 events in Hilversum, Netherlands, and Tokyo, Japan.

Involved extensively in the game development, audio, and education communities, Alexander is a Committee Member of the Audio Engineering Society, an Appointed Council Member on the Board of the Independent Society of Musicians, a Mentor with the Audio Developer Conference, a STEM Ambassador, a Video Games Ambassador for Into Games, a Mentor for Limit Break, and an Industry Advocate for Grads in Games.

Alexander continues to write for the concert hall. Recent commissions include his new song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano, performed at the Wigmore Hall in London and The Palm Jumeirah, Dubai. In his spare time, Alexander enjoys piloting light aircraft, powerboating, long-distance running, traditional archery, and playing badminton.

EDUCATION

PhD Game Development: Glasgow School of Art

MSc Serious Games and Virtual Reality: Glasgow School of Art

MDes Sound for the Moving Image: Glasgow School of Art

BMus (Hons) Composition: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland


CERTIFICATIONS

Wwise-101: Wwise Fundamentals

Wwise-110: End-User

Wwise-135: Certified Instructor Program

Wwise-201: Interactive Music

Wwise-251: Performance Optimisation

Wwise-301: Wwise Unity Integration

AWARDS

Best Original Score: BAFTA New Talent Awards (nom.)

Diversity Champion: Scottish Games Awards 2023 (nom.)

Winner: UK Games Fund Tranzfuser

APPOINTMENTS

Full Member: BAFTA

Committee Member: AES

Council Member: ISM

Trustee: Scottish Game Developers Assoc.

Fellow (FRSA): Royal Society of Arts

Member: Royal Society of Musicians

Member: Royal Aeronautical Society

 

Music featured on Hogwarts Legacy (Study Themes from the Original Video Game Soundtrack):

 

SoundTown (An accessible one-button music game for children with complex needs):