Composer Gustav Hoyer combines a rich classical background with modern sensibilities to create memorable musical experiences.

“Music can create an encompassing emotional induction that binds us to another person. We literally and figuratively resonate together when we share music. I want people to be reminded of the glorious and mysterious wonders of being alive and be filled in their soul with awe and joy.”

Whether composing for ensembles, media or multi-faceted musical encounters, Hoyer creates musical narratives that resonate with drama, richness and the contrast of light and dark moments. His recorded music has been heard in film, on radio and in performances worldwide. He founded and directed the Los Angeles-based Orchestra Unleashed, dazzling audiences with a series of multimedia orchestral performances that reimagined the typical classical concert. Concurrently, Hoyer produced the original soundtrack for critically acclaimed stage epic “Acts, the Three Man Show.” His album “The Gilded Age,” included The Steampunk Serenade for a 40-piece string orchestra and more recently “The Mental Cartographer” drew upon the power of a full symphony orchestra.

Gustav Hoyer’s journey to become a classical music composer was certainly not scripted. At the age of eight, he was kicked out of piano lessons for not practicing. His parents, both working in the sciences, didn’t encourage or emphasize music as a life pursuit. He instead turned to computers and video games to satisfy his growing curiosity with narrative and technology. Having no particular interest or training in music, Hoyer was headed directly for a career in mathematics or hard sciences. As a junior in high school, Hoyer took a music theory class to round out his assumed life course. Instead, it was a class that changed the trajectory of his life.

“I distinctly remember the day we were studying a musical structure (minuet and trio),” Hoyer recalls. “The teacher played two samples. The first was the third movement of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. The second was the third movement of Beethoven’s First Symphony. I recall feeling something like a revelation. It was very nearly as if I had been blind and could now see for the first time. I encountered these musical geniuses not as museum pieces but as cunning, brilliant, and daring human souls who were speaking through music.”

Creating new works in the classical tradition is very detailed and involves many complicated conventions and traditions. There are enormous logistical and financial challenges. It is an uncommon medium for an artist of our time, Exploring the richness of traditional orchestral instruments and techniques along with modern technological tools drives Hoyer each day to create, educate and nurture listeners.

“I want to be a counter-cultural voice advocating for the earnest and authentic in an age of digital cynicism, sarcasm, and commercialism, and at the end of it all I want my music to penetrate deeply into a listener and remind them of the transcendent reality of what it is to be human.”