Inon Zur is an American composer born in Israel. He creates music for films, television shows, and video games. He has written soundtracks for more than 80 video games, including Dragon Age, EverQuest, Fallout, Prince of Persia, Star Trek, the Syberia series, and Starfield. He has been nominated for awards, including three BAFTAs, and has won several honors, such as an Emmy. His soundtracks have earned music awards for games like Men of Valor (2004), Crysis (2007), Dragon Age: Origins (2009), The Elder Scrolls: Blades (2019), Syberia: The World Before (2023), Starfield (2024), and Rise of the Ronin (2024).
Early life
Inon Zur was born in Israel. At age five, he tried to create harmonies while his mother sang and became interested in classical music. He learned to play the French horn as a child, studied piano by age eight, and began learning how to write music by age ten. He graduated from the Music Academy of Tel Aviv and served in the Israeli Army for four years in a special military group. In 1990, he moved to the United States to study music. He first attended the Dick Grove School of Music for one year, then studied with teacher Jack Smalley, a television music composer, and others for two years at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Career
Zur began his career in 1994 by creating music for movie soundtracks, such as Yellow Lotus, which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. He worked for Fox Family for six years, composing music for children’s television shows made by Saban Entertainment, including Big Bad Beetleborgs, Digimon, and Power Rangers. By 2002, Zur estimated he had written music for more than 360 episodes of Power Rangers. His work was credited to Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi (a name used for Haim Saban), while Zur was usually only listed as a music producer. This arrangement was said to allow the two people to collect music royalties. Zur and other composers at the company agreed to give up rights to their music before starting their jobs. During this time, he won his first award, a Telly Award, for his work on Power Rangers: Turbo. Although he enjoyed the work, he wanted to move to a place where people valued music more. His agent helped him transition to the video game industry. His first video game soundtrack was Star Trek: Klingon Academy (2000), which he began working on in 1997. Zur later composed music for important video games, including Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001) and Icewind Dale II (2002). Icewind Dale II earned him his first nomination for a video game music award, the Game Audio Network Guild’s Music of the Year award. He continued making music for movies and television shows during these years.
Zur has created music for many movie trailers. His most recent full movie soundtrack was for Reclaim (2014). He has worked on some television series since then, with his last traditional television soundtrack being for Ghost Whisperer (2007). He has also composed music for webisodes and animated series. He continued working on video games, including Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (2005) and Crysis (2007). He has received many nominations for video game music awards, including his first win for Men of Valor in the Best Original Instrumental Track category at the 2004 Game Audio Network Guild awards.
Zur wrote the original music for the Crysis, Dragon Age, Fallout, Syberia, and Starfield franchises.
Some of the most well-known projects Zur has composed music for include Icewind Dale II (2002), EverQuest Online (2003), Men of Valor (2004), Crysis (2007), Fallout 3 (2008), Prince of Persia (2008), Dragon Age: Origins (2009), Fallout: New Vegas (2010), World of Tanks: Mercenaries (2017), Dragon Age II (2011), Fallout 4 (2015), Fallout 76 (2018), The Elder Scrolls: Blades (2019), and Starfield (2023).
Performances
Zur's music has been performed in several live concerts. The first was a concert in Seoul, South Korea, on May 30, 2006, which focused on his music for Lineage II: Chronicle V: Oath of Blood. On August 20, 2008, music from his Crysis soundtrack was performed in Leipzig, Germany, during a Video Games Live concert. His music from Dragon Age: Origins and Prince of Persia was played at a concert in Sydney, Australia, on September 26, 2009, by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra. Zur was a guest at the event.
For the first time ever, a concert featuring his music from Lord of the Rings: War in the North was held each evening at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. The one-hour concert was conducted by Zur and performed by The Hollywood Orchestra and Choir, with contributions from The Lyris Quartet and vocals by Aubrey Ashburn. Zur originally conducted and recorded the game's music with the London Philharmonia Orchestra and the Pinewood Singers Choir at Abbey Road Studios in London.
In 2018, Zur composed and performed music from the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series during a live concert at the Eventim Apollo in London, which was co-hosted by Bethesda Game Studios and the charity War Child. In 2021, the London Symphony Orchestra performed Zur's Starfield score at Bethesda's 10th Anniversary concert for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In 2023, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed a 10-year concert at The Game Awards on June 25, which included a performance of Zur's Starfield theme.
In March 2025, Zur and Imagine Dragons toured together. Zur composed music with the Los Angeles Film Orchestra for Imagine Dragons' concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.
Legacy
Zur's music has appeared in many popular video game series. He is known worldwide as one of the top orchestral composers in the video game industry. The magazine Variety included him in a list of top video game composers. He was ranked 17th among the top 40 greatest video game composers of all time by composercode.com.
In the film industry, Zur creates music for movie trailers. He has worked with BMG Production Music on films such as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Hobbit, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. He has also composed music for many other film trailers. Additionally, he has collaborated with NCSOUND on several video game projects.
Many artists have performed covers of Zur's songs. Raney Shockne and Elizaveta performed a cover of Zur's song "I am the One" from Dragon Age: Origins for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Zur joined The Recording Academy as a new member in 2023.
Zur and the band Imagine Dragons created a song called Children of the Sky, which was part of the Lonestar Freedom Mission on the Intuitive Machines' Athena moon lander. This mission aimed to be the first to broadcast a song from the moon.
Musical style and influences
Zur's music often includes full orchestras, choirs, and sometimes ethnic instruments such as Arabic flutes and the woodwind duduk, especially in games like Prince of Persia. He frequently works with the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra from Seattle, though he has also used other orchestras. When Zur collaborates with a real orchestra, he always conducts the music himself. He has listed classical composers like Sergey Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Beethoven, movie composers such as John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, and jazz musicians like George Gershwin and Henry McFeeny as influences. Although Zur would like to create music not tied to a larger media project, he finds that meeting deadlines and receiving feedback from game developers helps him grow as a composer. He believes his music works best when connected to the media it was created for, but he also thinks that playing the music alone can change it "from just a soundtrack to an art form on its own." Zur sometimes works with other musicians while composing game soundtracks, such as when he collaborated with Florence and the Machine to create a special version of "I'm Not Calling You A Liar" for the Dragon Age II soundtrack.
Zur is usually invited to compose for a game after it is mostly finished, which is earlier than for films and television, where changes are limited to post-production effects. This makes video game music composition a more "flexible" process. Zur believes it is important to play a game before composing its music, even if it is only a development version. Instead of writing music based on the game's setting, he focuses on the emotions he wants players to feel at specific moments. While he thinks music technology has improved enough to no longer limit his work, he notes that game budgets can restrict what he creates. Zur is known in the industry as a fast composer, which he attributes to his intuitive approach rather than spending a lot of time planning. When not composing, Zur enjoys playing video games, especially those he has worked on, playing basketball, and spending time with his family. In the future, he hopes to create music for children's games and soundtracks that include jazz music.