Tyler Grow(I)

Tyler Charles Grow was born on May 4th, 1999, in the Romanian city of Satu Mare. Shortly after his birth, Tyler was placed in adoptive services, but faced difficulties due to the closure of Romanian borders to overseas adoption; he was eventually approved and adopted by his mother Melissa Stacey, and father Charlie Grow in Florida. On May 4th, 2000 Tyler flew into Miami's International Airport from Romanian Airlines on his first birthday. During his infancy, Tyler suffered an injury that resulted in him developing an Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) that causes him to process sounds differently than normal. His disorder meant that he struggled with language development at a very young age. It was said that his struggle in processing sound could hinder him in the future - specifically, it was said he would never be able to become a musician...

In 3rd Grade, Tyler was momentarily left alone in the teacher's lounge whilst his teacher conversed with his mother outside. Alone in the office, Tyler noticed a piano located in the corner of the teacher's lounge. Tyler had no musical training and definitely could not read sheet music, but nevertheless, he decided to try and play the piano in the office. After testing the keys, Tyler very quickly became accustomed to the notes on the piano, and managed to play the tune of Oh! Susanna, completely by ear. His mother and teacher re-entered the office whilst he was playing and were stunned by his natural musical talent. Shortly afterward, his parents bought him his first keyboard, and he was encouraged to pursue his abilities. In 4th Grade, his music teacher Mr. Snyder introduced him to the trumpet, which he learned by memorizing finger patterns as opposed to sheet music. He would go on to perform in school concerts for the rest of elementary school, and in 7th Grade, he purchased his own iPad and began using the Garage Band app to start creating his own music. He eventually upgraded to the Music Studio app and started uploading his original pieces to YouTube.

Tyler went on to attend the G-Star High School of the Arts for Film, Animation, and Performing Arts. Wanting to pursue his passion further, Tyler asked his film teacher, Larry Decarmine how he could put his musical talent to use. This encouraged him to begin writing film scores; he composed his first-ever original score for a high school film project. Soon after, Tyler upgraded from Music Studio when he bought his first MacBook Pro, where he then began to use the industry-standard Logic Pro to compose his scores. In the summer after his sophomore year, Tyler attended an NYU scoring workshop, run by industry musicians Michael Levine (the KitKat theme) and Ira Newborn (The Naked Gun Trilogy). Tyler was one of only two high school students to be accepted across the entire program, auditing his position initially and participating fully the following year. For his composition, Tyler chose to re-score the intro theme for Universal Pictures: Serenity. Despite being told he would struggle with such a challenging clip, Tyler managed to complete his composition, transcribe it to sheet music, and perform it with the New York String Quartet. His performance was well-received, and he passed the workshop.

In his Senior year, Tyler became aware of a competition being hosted by legendary film composer Hans Zimmer (Inception, The Dark Knight), who had paired up with Indie.com and National Geographic. The competition involved re-scoring the main theme to the National Geographic TV Series Genius and would be supervised by Zimmer and fellow film composer Lorne Balfe (Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Crown). Of the thousands of applicants that submitted their work, Tyler managed to make it to the final rounds of the competition and had his work heard by the blue panel of judges, including Balfe himself, who personally complimented his composition. In the same year, Tyler was fortunate to meet renowned director Rob Minkoff (The Lion King) at a benefit luncheon, where he discussed both his desire to compose film scores professionally, as well as their mutual experience of working with Hans Zimmer.

Since graduating high school, Tyler has attended the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where he was quickly invited to work on a large-scale production being filmed in California. To bolster his composition, Tyler contacted the local Savannah Children's Choir to help in recording the score. The recording process lasted from September through to November 2018 and was supervised by the Emmy-nominated sound designer Mitch Gettleman (Scrubs). In his sophomore year, Tyler met famous composer Alan Silvestri (The Avengers, Forrest Gump, Back to the Future) when he attended the Savannah Film Festival, adding another name to the growing list of industry professionals that he has interacted with.

Tyler is continuing to pursue his passion for music, but he is not afraid to broaden his horizons; he is currently majoring in Sound Design at SCAD, expanding his field of knowledge and abilities beyond film composition. He has scored several short films as part of the SCAD Senior Film Showcase, such as The Mandrake and Monkey Thief, and more recently provided the score for a Coca-Cola commercial that went on to win the 2020 Coca-Cola Refreshing Films Competition, which was chosen to play in theatres across the country. With his signature orchestral style that gives an epic sense of awe and wonder, Tyler Grow has exceeded expectations and has been complimented for his work on nearly every project he has ever produced. To eventually become a full-time music composer, Tyler hopes to only get better at his craft and isn't planning on stopping anytime soon.