Morgan Ainsley
For as long as she can remember, Morgan has loved soundtrack music. When she realised having an encyclopaedic knowledge of the names and works of composers like John Powell, Thomas Newman, John Williams and James Horner was not a common trait, she knew there was something about it that was calling to her.
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To the question “what would you be, if you could be anything?” Morgan’s answer was always “a film composer,” but this notion started as an unachievable hypothetical. Music was always a part of her life, growing up playing a handful of instruments including flute, piano and percussion, and writing songs. But envisioning an actual career only started to take on solid shape when, after a two year detour in an engineering degree, she took the leap to start studying at the prestigious Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She hasn’t looked back.
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Morgan has since collaborated repeatedly with a number of directors on short films which have been submitted to festivals around the world. Additionally, her particular passion for the unique challenges of video game music has led Morgan to participate in multiple game jams, notably winning 2nd place in audio contributed to the winning game of the inaugural “Pixel Pastures” game jam in Sydney earlier this year. She is deeply involved in the indie game scene, regularly attending monthly meetups and annual events such as Melbourne International Games Week and SXSW.
Morgan also has a love of writing for and recording live musicians, and is comfortable working with music notation, having done work as a copyist on the new Australian work “As Tascen” by Joshua McNulty, premiered last year. She has also been commissioned to write music for the Six Trio, a Sydney based chamber ensemble.
For a number of years, Morgan has been an active member of the Filmharmonia orchestra, which is committed to performing and spreading the love of film, tv and game soundtrack music. She plays flute in the orchestra and serves on the committee as the orchestra librarian. Most recently, she was selected to participate in their conducting workshop, choosing to lead the orchestra through an arrangement of John William’s themes from “Jurassic Park”.
