Creative Force & Musical Conduit

Tyler Hawes is an award-winning composer, multi-instrumentalist, and educator from Akron, OH

Throughout his lifetime, Tyler has been absorbing, collecting, and cultivating musical information. The first sounds he ever heard in this world were his father’s blues-inspired harmonica riffs. Coming of age through classical piano training, Tyler later veered into the world of Rock N’ Roll, picking up drums, guitar, and bass. Through various educational programs Tyler was able to explore fields of concert music and discover a whole new world through jazz and world music. During his undergraduate composition studies at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, he was called to Ghana, West Africa to learn from the masters of rhythm. Through endless observation of our planet’s ever-changing musical palette, Tyler continues in his learning…

Tyler is inspired by innovation. Through his concert works, he has been able to use known instruments in new ways, as well as weave genres into something less easily identifiable. Always drawn to the strange and unique, Tyler is a collector and connoisseur of unorthodox sounds and instruments, utilizing them tastefully throughout his music. He brings this innovation to his work for film, striving to create music that serves the story first and foremost, yet breathes new air into what is seen on screen. As a film composer, Tyler’s extensive musical background and stylistic versatility put him in a position to take on any type of visual media, ranging from commercials and jingles, to television and feature films. 

Tyler has received a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Music Composition from University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Tyler currently resides in Akron, OH where he continues writing and producing music for films, commercials, trailers, and other forms of visual media. He also teaches private lessons in a variety of subjects through the Trillium Schools of Music. Catch him all over NE Ohio performing regularly as a soloist, and with the groups Community Shoe, Wo Hop Madness, and Honeycreek.