Richard Jacques

Jacques was interested in composing music from an early age. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London,^[7] studying trombone and piano, and showed a keen interest in composition in multiple styles including orchestral, jazz and popular music genres. He then attended Wells Cathedral School^[8] aged 16 as a Specialist Musician, where he also took up Percussion. In 1994 Jacques graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Colchester Institute / University of Essex.^[9] He was immediately hired as an in-house composer at Sega Europe.

At Sega Europe, Jacques began by composing soundtracks for a number of Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, and Xbox games such as Daytona CCE, Sonic R, Sonic 3D Blast, Jet Set Radio, Metropolis Street Racer and Jet Set Radio Future.^[10]

Jacques's perhaps best known and acclaimed work at Sega came with 2001's Headhunter.^[11] It was the first video game soundtrack to be recorded with A-list musicians at Abbey Road Studios' Studio One.^[12] The soundtrack was well received,^[13] and won multiple awards including Game Audio Network Guild 'Recognition Award',^[14] and was performed at the first Symphonic Game Music Concert at The Gewandhaus in Leipzig and Video Games Live events including the inaugural concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005.^[11] Jacques left Sega Europe shortly after Jet Set Radio Future's release and became a freelance composer, continuing his relationship with Sega by scoring Headhunter: Redemption in 2004.

Jacques went on to compose the BAFTA^[15] and Ivor Novello^[16] nominated original music for James Bond 007: Blood Stone, which is a big energy score that immerses the audience in a thrilling, cinematic Bond experience. The score received top honours for "Best Original Composition" from the Music and Sound Awards 2012.^[17] After this, Jacques composed the music for the Alice in Wonderland game, for Disney in 2010, and LittleBigPlanet 2 for Sony in 2011.

Soon after, Richard opened a new studio in central London AUDISSI where which he writes original music for new advertising, television. video games and other visual media projects, including an animated feature film. This included music for TV game-shows such as Don't Scare the Hare, Prize Island, Fifteen to One, Catchphrase, The Getaway Car, Go for It, Don't Ask Me Ask Britain and Y Siambr.

In 2018, Jacques was presented with the Lifetime Achievement award from the Game Audio Network Guild.^[18]

In 2022, his score to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy won him the Best Original Video Game Score Ivor Novello Award. ^[19]

• Richard Jacques's official site
• Richard Jacques discography at MusicBrainz