Hunter Hanson is a composer, songwriter, and music editor based in New York City whose music spans concert works, film scores, songwriting, and music production. He received his bachelor’s in music composition from Northwestern University where he was awarded the Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award for the Bienen School of Music. He went on to receive his master’s in Screen Scoring at NYU Steinhardt where he was awarded the Elmer Bernstein Award in Film Scoring. He is now an adjunct instructor in the Screen Scoring program at NYU where he teaches composition, contemporary screen scoring techniques, MIDI and DAW production, and music editing.
Hunter’s scoring work (IMDB), focuses on experimenting with new sounds to discover distinct palettes for every collaboration. One such project is the horror feature Dead Tongues which won “Best Feature Film” at the Portland H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. He also works as a music editor on films such as Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023) and as a scoring assistant to composer Tamar-kali on projects such as Netflix’s Shirley (2024), Mixtape (2021), and the upcoming The Fire Inside (2024).
Hunter is a founding member of the band Gregular in which he writes songs and performs guitar, violin, and vocals. Gregular released their debut album, The Body, in 2018 and released their sophomore album Soulsinking in 2021. Breezeblow, his first solo release, won a Lennon Award in the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest.
Hunter’s concert music includes collaborations with ensembles such as The Fonema Consort, The Crossing, and Bearthoven, an NYC-based new music trio for whom he composed “Decision Fatigue” (“Merit Award” - Tribeca New Music). His scores often combine live electronics and instrumental performance, frequently searching for interplay between pop and classical idioms.
Courses:
MPATC-GE 2049 - Contemporary Scoring Techniques (Lab)