Charlotte Martin and Video-Game Music Icon to Speak on Music Business

April 20, 2006

Singer/songwriter/pianist and former RCA recording artist Charlotte Martin will join a renowned video-game music composer in giving a presentation at Eastern Illinois University about the music business's past, present and future trends.

Martin, a Charleston native and EIU graduate, is to speak with Tommy Tallarico from 3 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, in the Grand Ballroom of the MLK Jr. Union.

“I think this will be a golden opportunity for students and community members, as well as local alumni, to hear what’s really going on in the music and entertainment business,” said Martin’s father, Joe Martin, assistant chair of the EIU music department and organizer of the event.

Martin and Tallarico are to greet attendees at a reception following the presentation.

Martin spent four years with RCA, releasing the critically acclaimed “On Your Shore” album during that time. Martin and her husband, well-known music producer Ken Andrews, recently started their own label, called Dinosaur Fight Records.

Martin’s recent work includes compositions for video games, including some work with Tallarico.

Tallarico is the most successful composer of music for video games in the world. In his 15 years of writing music for video games, Tallarico has had a hand in the audio for more than 200 game titles, including “The Terminator,” “Earthworm Jim,” “Disney’s Aladdin,” “Tony Hawk Pro Skater” and “Spider-Man,” as well as top selling popular game franchises such as “Madden Football,” “Blitz Football,” “Pac-Man,” “Knockout Kings,” “Unreal,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Twisted Metal” and “Time Crisis.”

In 1994, he founded Tommy Tallarico Studios, the multimedia industry’s largest audio production house. He also co-founded Mystical Stone Entertainment, which created the critically acclaimed Video Games Live, an immersive, audio and video concert experience celebrating video games.

In 2003, the IDG video game industry white paper named Tallarico (along with Bill Gates) one of the people who contributed the most to the advancement and growth of the industry.

For more information on the artists, see www.charlottemartin.com and www.tallarico.com.