Draft:Kristofer Maddigan

Early Life

Kristofer Maddigan is an award winning composer and drummer who creates music for many genres including classical, jazz, theater, and soundtracks.

Maddigan graduated from the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of music with a major in percussion. Receiving an Artist’s diploma in 2009. During his time at the school, he studied with members of the Toronto Symphony, and jazz drummers such as Jim Blackley and Terry Clarke. He also pursued private study with other prestigious artists in Canada and internationally.

Maddigan started on piano but didn’t have the patience for it, so instead he took up classical percussion. Eventually leading into rock drums throughout high school. While taking general courses at the University of Regina, he came across a poster for the percussion ensemble at the university. This led to him refalling into love with music. While taking general courses at the University of Regina, he came across a poster for the percussion ensemble at the university. This led to him refalling into love with music. His first major compositions include a stint in the University of Toronto, and processed marimba background music for a Nuit Blanche project. Maddigan has also expressed his interest in Brazilian percussion. Kristofer Maddigan was a gamer growing up, but stopped playing when he started his undergrad as he didn’t have enough time to keep up.

Career

Maddigan made his Billboard debut with his soundtrack score to a video game from 2017, Cuphead. As a resident of Toronto, he has connections with multiple other classical organizations, including the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra in 2010, and worked with the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto Concert Orchestra, and rock crossover outfit Dévah Quartet. Kristofer Maddigan earned a spot in the national ballet orchestra after graduating from the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of music as a percussion major. His highest profile work came in September of 2017, with the release of the video game Cuphead. Maddigan’s playful and creative jazz age-inspired game soundtrack debuted at number nine on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.

Maddigan doesn’t only focus on composing music, he also regularly performs for the groups previously mentioned as well as: The Hannaford Street Silver Band, The Esprit Orchestra, The Thunder-Bay Symphony, and the A Fantastica Batteria. He also works with numerous jazz, theater, and music groups around the city of Toronto. Kris has received recognition for his talents including the BAFTA award winner and as a Juno award nominee. In 2018 he was honored with the Toronto Musicians’ Associated “Musician of the Year” award.

As a composer, Maddigan has contributed music to the “My Virtual Dream” project, which premiered at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in 2013. As well as working on “Cuphead” in 2017 and the follow up, “The Delicious Last Course” in 2022.

Cuphead was Maddigan’s first game that he’s written music for, brought onboard around the summer of 2013. Although writing music for games wasn’t a path that Maddigan thought he would take, having such a specific project was a good start for him, as he can’t just sit down and create. While developing the music for Cuphead, he found John Herberman, a great teacher who gave Maddigan the guidance to create something unique and interesting. Ever since Cuphead’s release, Maddigan has gotten little offers from other projects, but as a freelance musician, he finds enough work on his own. But Maddigan would absolutely work with Studio MDHR again, since they both work at a similar pace: slow and deliberate.

His greatest achievement, and most popular composition has been his work from the videogame Cuphead. Maddigan was approached by his friends Chad and Jared Modlenhauer, the creators of Cuphead. After release, Cuphead skyrocketed in profit and popularity, and received many accolades for its soundtrack. Including the Best game of 2017 by Entertainment Weekly, a BAFTA for Best Game Music, and an Academy of Arts and Sciences D.I.C.E. award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music. Maddigan worked on composing Cuphead’s soundtrack side by side with the development of the game. And would continue to alter and tweak it as more of the level was developed and created. The only style guidelines Maddigan was given were “1930s big band”, literally being told to “Do whatever you like”. He has also stated that working on the game has been difficult as Studio MDHR realized how it would expose more people to this type of music. So they recognized that they needed to keep the soundtrack away from being parodies of the original 1930s music. Kris states that Duke Ellington and Scott Joplin were the biggest influences on Cuphead, but also mentions Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and Fletcher Henderson for being large inspirations for the soundtrack.

Kristofer Maddigan has his own website with tons of information on both his music and how to create your own music that can assist anyone looking for advice.