Cory Stillman
When the score for the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians won the Children’s & Family Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Live Action Program in March of 2025, the victory made history in more ways than one. Of course, it was the first-ever Emmy win for young composers Brian Claeys, Alexandre Côté, and Jesse Hartov. But perhaps more importantly, the trophy marks the first Emmy awarded to a collective team of composers, as opposed to any one individual. The talented trio won the award alongside Omer Ben-Zvi, Bailey Gordon, Kelsey Woods, all of whom work under legendary composer Bear McCreary, whose company Sparks & Shadows has become one of the most essential incubators for young musical talent in the film/TV industry. McCreary is not the only composer to rely on a team of rising talent in crafting the score for a sprawling project like Percy Jackson, but he deserves credit for so openly embracing this shifting dynamic in the industry, and affording his mentees the opportunity to call themselves Emmy winners.
“I hope that our Emmy win helps push the industry to recognize how so much of its music is made, and embrace the idea that a team of composers can create an award-winning score,” says Claeys, who served as Bear’s lead composer on the series. “The truth is we’re not the first team to do it—just one of the first to be credited.”
Claeys’ role as lead composer/score producer on Percy Jackson required him to not only make his own musical contributions to the project, but also identify the strengths of his co-composers, delineating responsibilities and cues accordingly. Côté’s background scoring adrenaline-fueled projects like Halo and Call of Duty: Vanguard for Sparks & Shadows made him the perfect choice to work on some of Percy Jackson‘s most action-packed and creature-heavy sequences, while Hartov’s prowess as an indie film composer lent him a knack for the series’ more sentimental moments. Although Claeys was tasked with ensuring the score cohered into one consistent sound, he and McCreary also encouraged the team to think outside of the box.
“Although our main palette was orchestra, we often use soloists and sound design to create unique and memorable motifs,” says Hartov. “For Hades, we composed melodies for the yayli tanbur, played by the great Malachai Bandy, and accompanied it with dark, brooding choir and brass. Hermes was accompanied by ticking clocks and other motorized sounds.”
Another point of pride for McCreary and the entire Sparks & Shadows team is the live recording of the score right in Los Angeles.
“The music wouldn’t hit the same way without our live orchestra,” says Côté’. “We had the opportunity to record here in Los Angeles with some of the best players in the world, and their contribution can’t be understated. Live players add a humanity to music that’s hard to describe; you just feel it, and it absolutely elevates the music to the next level.”
Check out our full conversation with Claeys, Côté, and Hartov below. All three men are among the most exciting young composers in film/TV, and offer special insight on not only their own careers, but also their unique relationships with an immense talent like Bear McCreary.
Hey guys! Congrats on your recent win at the Children’s & Family Emmys. What was your initial reaction to such a major career milestone?
Brian Claeys: It was pretty surreal—and definitely not something we were thinking about when we started working on the score back in 2023. Being able to go on stage and accept the Emmy as a team was really special. There are so many incredible composers and scores out there, so while I always believed we made something great, I never expected to actually win an Emmy. It meant the world to have the trust that was placed in me and the team validated like that.
Alexandre Côté: Totally agree with Brian, it was really a total surprise. I feel incredibly grateful towards all of my teachers and mentors, and especially to Bear [McCreary] for believing in us. This is a really exciting recognition that we’re honored to accept on behalf of the entire music team, including the orchestrators, mixing team, and of course the players themselves.
Jesse Hartov: It was an extraordinary experience to receive this award as a team, and we’re immensely grateful. It was also really special to spend an evening celebrating children’s and family media, and meeting many talented folks working in this field.
Your Emmy win was also one-of-a-kind in that it was awarded to your entire team at Sparks & Shadows. How does the composition process differ when the score is crafted by a team such as yours?
JH: Composing as a team is a collaborative experience, and the ability to bounce ideas off of each other is both motivating and rewarding. Composing can sometimes be isolating – working in your “cave” and plugging away at your DAW. But writing on a team is more analogous to being in a band, and getting to react to your co-composers’ musicality.
AC: It’s really cool to listen to everyone’s work because it gives me a fresh perspective on how to approach a scene. We all have musical tricks we fall back on from time to time, which – while helpful – can start to feel stale. Being part of a team opens the opportunity to be inspired and learn from each other, and grow as a composer.
BC: The Emmy nomination and win being credited to a team like Sparks and Shadows was pretty special, but only made possible because of Bear’s deliberate effort to have the team credited on the show—something that’s very uncommon in the industry. He’s spoken about this in recent interviews, but the reality is that most modern film and TV scores are the work of a team like the one we had on Percy, not an individual composer as is usually credited. Not to say that there aren’t scores where that’s not the case, or where the lion’s share of the work is in fact done by one individual. The truth is that many writers contribute to many scores, but many of those composers are never credited.
In my experience this isn’t necessarily due to bad intentions, but to the demands of modern scoring: fast turnarounds, high production expectations, and the sheer volume of music required. What do you do when you need to re-write an entire episode overnight? If you’re working alone, the answer is: you can’t. This kind of thing came up on Percy when the schedule became extremely tight towards the end of season one, resulting in us having to write the finale in just four days. Despite the crunch, in my opinion that episode has some of the best music in the entire season.
Even with more ideal deadlines, you’ll never have an endless amount of writing time. But if you have a singular vision, good themes, and an established musical palette, working with a team allows every cue to receive the maximum amount of time and effort possible—and still feel consistent with the rest of the score. I hope that our Emmy win helps push the industry to recognize how so much of its music is made, and embrace the idea that a team of composers can create an award-winning score; because the truth is we’re not the first team to do it—just one of the first to be credited.
The Sparks & Shadows team is led by acclaimed composer Bear McCreary. How has Bear’s style shaped your own musical sensibilities?
BC: Bear’s been an incredible mentor to me for basically my entire career, as I began working at Sparks & Shadows only a week after moving to LA in 2019. Over the years I’ve learned so much, a lot just from being around and involved in the production of so many different scores. One of the biggest things Bear emphasizes is the importance of collaboration between composer and filmmaker—how to realize their vision and tell a story through music. It’s easy to get lost in the technical details of scoring, but in the end, the music only works if it’s serving the story. And that only happens if you’re asking the right questions—both to the director and to yourself.
AC: To me, Bear’s style is all about being bold, and I’ve tried to take that ethos into every cue and every project. So when I start a piece of music, I’m always thinking; “how do I convey this musical idea as clearly and confidently as possible?”. I would rather take a big swing musically and be wrong than take a half-hearted approach and be right. I’m incredibly grateful that I’ve gotten to see how Bear approaches the orchestra, and incorporate his ideas into my music.
JH: Bear is not only a brilliant composer, but a master at dramatic storytelling. I’ve learned a lot from him about narratively supporting what’s going on on-screen, and making sure that the cue you’re writing is achieving the story’s goals. But with that said, any cue that Bear writes is going to have a developed musicality to it–a style of its own, and a language of its own. Achieving all of those things in a cue takes practice and skill, and it’s a privilege getting to learn that from Bear.
What was the division of labor like while scoring Percy Jackson & The Olympians? Could you each describe your individual contributions to the project?
BC: I had the privilege of working as Bear’s lead composer on Percy, but when it came to actually writing the music, we were all in it together. Each composer wrote cues that only they could write and contributed in an irreplaceable way to the score.That’s the heart of the score, but there’s a lot more that goes into it as well. Spotting, orchestrating, recording, mixing, music editing, there’s a ton of other people involved and a lot of moving parts, especially when you’re doing it all eight times in a row over the span of a few months.
As lead composer, I was essentially the point person for Sparks and Shadows and responsible for making sure everyone involved was set up for success. I would spot each episode with Bear and the showrunners, after which I’d then assign cues to the team and make sure everyone had the information they needed to approach each scene. I also had to look at each cue and evaluate how it fit into the bigger picture of the episode and/or score. Each composer needed to be on the same page when it came to the overall musical direction and development throughout the season. It was my job to make sure that was the case and that the resulting score felt cohesive and was what the showrunners were looking for. I was also in charge of producing the recording sessions and reviewing the final mixes before they went to the stage, but it was always great to have the writers involved in each of those opportunities when it came to their cues as well.
AC: A lot of my effort went into defining the musical language for the monsters. In the first episode, one of the cues I composed was the Minotaur chase sequence, and Bear, Brian and I spent days adjusting and tweaking the music so we would have a robust palette to pull from as we encountered more monsters in the season.
I also got the opportunity to write music for the Olympus scenes in the season finale. We wanted it to feel lonely, empty, but with an ancient elegance to it. I drew a lot of inspiration from Gregorian chants and created a rigid sound that we hadn’t heard yet this season. It was great to take the lead on these aspects of our score, and refine it with the team. Once the music is approved, we all work with the orchestrators and musicians to take it from computer to recording stage.
JH: I had the opportunity to work on developing sonic palettes for several notable characters, which was a blast. Although our main palette was orchestra, we often use soloists and sound design to create unique and memorable motifs. For Hades, we composed melodies for the yayli tanbur, played by the great Malachai Bandy, and accompanied it with dark, brooding choir and brass. Hermes was accompanied by ticking clocks and other motorized sounds. Motifs and themes are an area where we want each character to have a sound world of their own, and thinking outside the box often gets us there.
Brian – As the score producer on the series, how did you identify and assign each musical cue to the other members of the Percy Jackson team?
BC: One of the cool things about creating a score as a team is that no two composers would write the same cue the same way. Everyone could’ve done a great version of any cue—but having worked with each of them before, I usually had a good sense of who would be the best fit for a specific scene. Different cues demand a different touch and style, even within the cohesive sound of the overall score, so it was helpful to already have an idea of which writer would be best suited to tackle a cue based on my experience with their unique style and voice.
At the same time, I definitely didn’t want to pigeonhole anyone or deny someone the chance to try something different. Everyone on the team brought a lot to the table and really immersed themselves in the score, so I tried to stay open to mixing things up if someone felt strongly about writing a particular cue.
Can you each share a personal favorite musical moment in the series?
JH: The Ares battle in the season finale was one of my favorite sequences to score. We had the opportunity to bring back so many themes and leitmotifs in this sequence, and really turn things “up to 11.” Getting to be bold thematically is one of my favorite aspects of working on Percy.
BC: I feel like on almost every episode there was a cue that kept me in the studio for 24-48 hours straight—but those were often my favorite cues in the whole show. It’s hard to choose, but if I had to pick I’d say that the two scenes with Poseidon—one with Sally in episode seven and one with Percy in episode eight—mean the most to me. Those scenes are so beautifully shot, written, and acted, and I really wanted the music to rise to that level. I’m really proud of how those cues turned out and how they support two of the emotional climaxes of the season.
AC: For me, it would have to be the moment in the finale when Percy, Grover, and Annabeth part ways after the quest is over. It’s the emotional climax of the season that shows a softer and more vulnerable side to the trio, as they each reflect on their journey and look towards the future. It’s quite bittersweet, and I wanted to give this scene the impact it deserves.
Musically, it was an opportunity to weave all of our character themes together, each dovetailing from one to the other as our heroes have their moment. I pulled some inspiration from John Williams’ Harry Potter music, specifically the finale of The Sorcerer’s Stone. His music does a wonderful job of communicating a complex emotion with simple and clear music ideas. I felt there were a lot of parallels between the two scenes, so I aimed to capture a bit of his musical magic into our Percy music.
That being said, the music wouldn’t hit the same way without our live orchestra. We had the opportunity to record here in Los Angeles with some of the best players in the world, and their contribution can’t be understated. Live players add a humanity to music that’s hard to describe; you just feel it, and it absolutely elevates the music to the next level.
Alex – Working alongside Bear McCreary has also afforded each of you the opportunity to work on such titles as Paramount+ Halo Series and the iconic Call of Duty: Vanguard. Do you have any favorite memories or relationships that have stemmed from your work on any of these projects?
AC: There are so many great moments! It’s hard to choose. I’ll say that one of the best parts of working with Bear is that he always advocates for live players, and often some very out-of-the-box ones. Bear knows how to push every instrument to its limit and then some, and I’ve gotten to meet and learn from so many amazing musicians. Each time I come away with a new perspective on their instrument, and it changes how I approach writing for them in the future. It’s quite inspiring.
Our mixing team of Ben Sedano and Ryan Sanchez that we’ve been working on several of our projects are amazing as well. They were the team on Percy Jackson as well; Ben was our score editor, and Ryan the mixer. We’ve worked together now so many times that we’ve developed a shorthand, and they know what we’re looking for musically in our mixes and takes. Mixing is instrumental in tying together the sound of the show, even more so with multiple composers.
Jesse – How does your work on such high-profile projects differ from your experiences scoring independent film?
JH: I really enjoy getting to work in both of those worlds, because they provide different challenges. I’m very grateful that I get to work on high-profile projects, with larger budgets, and teams of uber-talented folks doing what they do best. Those projects often feel like a well-oiled machine with very high production quality, and that’s a special thing. Bouncing over to the indie side, each project is like a new puzzle to solve, because indies can be so unique and exploratory. Every time I work on an indie, I have to question not only the score direction, but my actual process of scoring, because sometimes there’s an opportunity to shake things up, and try something I’m not used to. For example, I have an indie feature coming up called “Coaled Blood” where I’m experimenting with a lot of unusual alternate tunings on guitar–something that’s forcing me to write and perform differently. It’s an exciting process.
What can fans expect next from each of you, both on Percy Jackson and beyond?
BC: We’re all super excited to dive back into Percy Jackson. After spending so much time developing the sound of season one, we have a strong foundation to build on—at the same time, we’re also looking forward to expanding on the score and trying some new things. There are new characters and storylines in season 2, as well as some opportunities to build upon already existing themes. We’re all excited to see how the score grows with these characters as they change and mature.
Alex, Jesse, and I also had the chance to keep working with Bear recently, contributing additional music to a new show coming out in August. Can’t say much more just yet—but hopefully ye will ken soon 😉
AC: Season 2 will be bigger and a touch more serious as the stakes go up. Our characters are growing up, and the music will do its best to mirror their new experiences. As Brian said, we’re excited to journey along with the characters, and infuse our emotional reactions to their story in our music.
Past Percy, I’ve wrapped up an original score to a dark comedy, and have a few other things coming along that I’ll be sharing when the time is right!
JH: Percy Season 2 is going to be awesome, and we’re excited to be a part of it. For the sci-fi fans out there, I’d recommend listening out for Bear and Sparks & Shadows on Foundation Season 3, dropping on Apple TV+ in July. In regard to solo projects, I’m working on Coaled Blood and have been busy in the lab doing custom sampling for that project. The film is by writer/director Sean Perry, who I had the pleasure of working with on DASH, available on Amazon Prime. If you like thrillers, I’d highly recommend checking it out.
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