Name: Ryan Walker
Born: July 24, 1987
Location: San Marcos, Texas
Biography: Ryan Walker was born in Lake Jackson, Texas, about fifty miles south of Houston. At the age of ten, he developed an interest in taking piano lessons. As a natural result of studying music, he began to compose some of his own; ever since, the two have been inseparable components of one another. Although he could not continue learning piano after a year, he took up trumpet immediately thereafter.
What began as simple piano pieces written with pencil and paper eventually expanded to include a variety of ensembles, a transition made possible after he started using MIDI software. He was thoroughly a self-taught amateur until he played Chrono Trigger when he was fifteen; it was then that he decided to turn his hobby into a career in writing music for video games. This has led him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Music Composition with Music Technology Certification at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is currently engaged in graduate studies at Texas State University in San Marcos.
Walker is an Eagle Scout with ten years of service with the Boy Scouts of America, although he has grown to view the organization with distaste because of its discriminatory practices. He was selected for the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges Program. In 2009, he received the Reed Holmes Composition Award, as well as the National Federation of Music Clubs Award for composing Movements I-III of De Rerum Natura for concert choir. He counts many composers among his influences, including John Adams, Claude Debussy, Paul Hindemith, Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Jeremy Soule, and Igor Stravinsky.