The award-winning composer comes with more than two decades experience as Audio Director at Nickelodeon, more than six years teaching at San Francisco State University, and more than 34 albums of original music.

#35: Today, our guest is Steve Horowitz - a composer who has worked on quite literally hundreds of film, TV, concert, and video game projects throughout his career. In this interview, we talk about not niching down as a composer, why he chooses to compose for practically every type of media, what it's like to compose for litereally hundreds of  projects in radically different styles, and much more.

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Based on the eight symbols used in Taoist cosmology, ‘PA KUA’, jumps from one corner too another as the plucking strings make it sound like rain pouring down the sky, bending massive drops to turn into a hailstorm that awaits us.

Welcome to "Side Scroller” the 30th album by prolific composer Steve Horowitz. Get ready for a heart pounding journey into a hypnotic world of rhythmic exactitude. Written for the critically acclaimed Red Desert Ensemble, Side Scroller exposes the hidden musical secrets trapped inside every video game."

Like any profession, working in the gaming industry requires specific training, and several Bay Area operations have popped up to help gigging musicians learn how to take their skills from the stage to “The Sims.” San Francisco State University’s program might be the most notable, as professor Steve Horowitz literally wrote the book on the industry and he also runs an online school called the Game Audio Institute.

Composer of the original score to the Academy Award Nominated film “Super Size Me” Steve Horowitz releases “Old Monster Trio” and “Mr. E" A creator of odd but highly accessible sounds and a diverse and prolific musician, Steve Horowitz is perhaps best known for his original Score to the Academy Award Nominated film “Super Size Me.” 

San Francisco State University, Launches it's brand new music for visual media program by welcoming Oscar- and-Grammy-winning composer David Shire (left) to perform his music in a program that includes a piece by Steve Horowitz inspired by one of Shire’s movie scores. Steve Horowitz had just finished writing the score to “Super Size Me,” Morgan Spurlock’s sensational 2004 documentary about eating nothing but McDonald’s fare for a month, when he came across a CD of David Shire’s score to “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” in a Manhattan record shop...- Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle

New SF State classes focus on scoring and sound for video games- By Jamie Oppenheim 

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Alexander String Quartet musicians play songs composed by students in the music for video games class created by Steve Horowitz

"These Three Pieces for ensemble are from the late 1980's. Scores are downloadable and worth a look. These are oddly original sound collages-eclectic, funny and smart."
-New Music Connoisseur, summer 2017

The Musical Universe of Steve Horowitz, click to listen to the KPFA 94.1fm career restrospective interview

The brilliantly eclectic (eclectically brilliant?) composer/musician Steve Horowitz talks with host Derk Richardson and shares examples of the "odd but highly accessible sounds" he has created over the past 15 years for experimental jazz ensembles, chamber groups, film, video games, and more.

When I first received this disc of Steve Horowitz’s music for Disklavier, my initial assumption was that the music would be thick and heavy, taking advantage of the complexity that human performers cannot readily achieve but a Disklavier can manage quite easily. Much to my surprise, the music on the disc is much more meditative, expansive, and considerably less dense than I assumed.  The end result is music that defies its mechanical creation. -Jay Batzner

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock’s hit documentary, Super Size Me, is one of the most-talked about films of the year. A tongue-in-cheek look at the legal, financial and physical costs of America’s hunger for fast food, the film deals with a somewhat serious topic in a very comical way. Creating music for such a project would seem a challenge. How do you convey seriousness while also keeping the tone light and entertaining? Spurlock didn’t have to search far for the right composer for the job. His longtime collaborator, composer Steve Horowitz, was just a phone call away. -Erik Philbrook

At turns engrossingly complex, subtly subtle, and harrowingly haunting, Breath is a musical journey where Horowitz – whose deep portfolio includes everything from video games to live sound-to-picture orchestrations to film soundtracks (Super-Size Me) – takes us along for an astounding ride.- David Weiss

Steve Horowitz is an innovative bassist and composer who has long been involved in experimental and concert music. After many solo recordings and projects with his group, The Code International, his latest recording is a series of bass and drum duets with nature sounds. Horowitz has a lush, intuitive touch on bass. His ensemble pieces are striking in their melodic clarity, minimalist sensibility and mood.

Click the image to listen to this fantastic piece by Alison-Cecile-Johns on KPFA, all about Steve's world premire concert of his piece "Massive Multiplayer Musical Offline Game" written for the Berkeley High Chamber Orchestra conducted by Karen Wells and featuring special guest soloist Fred Frith!

Inspired by rigorous but playful musical searchers like Sun Ra and Anthony Braxton, the dauntingly prolific East Bay saxophonist/composer Daniel Plonsey has a knack for writing tuneful, mercurial, and strangely affecting material. Bassist Steve Horowitz decided to reconfigure some of Plonsey’s music as post-bop jazz, resulting in “New Monsters,” a quintet session featuring Plonsey himself, ROVA saxophonist Steve Adams, pianist Scott Looney and drummer Jim Bove.

Simply stated “New Monsters” is an unanticipated surprise that should theoretically find its way on many best-of lists for 2012. Thankfully, Horowitz and associates tender a modern jazz refresh of sorts, providing a much needed contrast to the rolling waves of ho hum, kiddie bop. – Glenn Astarita

Redcat delivers one of its most ambitious efforts in this deconstructivist genre, when Steve Horowitz and his Code Ensemble present “The Re-Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” a reimagining of David Shire’s great crime-jazz score from the 1974 movie.

 "A triple layer cake of music, sound and multi-media. Pelham re-contextualizes the concept of fear in a post-9/11 world"

Nobody really wants to talk about the American musician. Or the real American musical experience. It is messy, ugly, discouraging, filled with wrong sounds and bad writing. Warning: Contains references to sex and drugs and may be harmful to those who don’t own a copy of Burnt Weeny Sandwich.

" Band leader Steve Horowitz met Amsterdam-based trombonist Joost Buis during a previous Dutch tour, Together they make clear what was so intriguing about the early records of the bandleader and composer Sun Ra. Horowitz gave a funky groove to the dense harmonies, extremely low tempos and other musical blow-ups. Mousetrap fully realizes a connection between danceability and free improvisation, without relying on traditionalism"- Remko Takken, deVolkskrant

New York, NY --Composer Steve Horowitz was recently a member of the team that snagged a Broadcast Design Award (BDA) Silver for its creation of the "Wonder Pets Save the Day" interactive game, producing all audio and sound effects for the online adventure -BY PROSOUNDNETWORK EDITORIAL STAFF