A prolific and versatile composer of popular video game and anime scores, most notably for the ubiquitous Final Fantasy game series, Nobuo Uematsu was born and raised in Kochi, Japan. A self-taught piano player, he graduated from Kanagawa University and played keyboards in local bands, eventually finding work as a composer for radio commercials by sending out his music demos. He moved into the video game medium in the mid-'80s when a friend offered work at the company then known as <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Squaresoft%22">Squaresoft</a> (later <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Square+Enix%22">Square Enix</a>). There, he composed music for dozens of games, including the first Final Fantasy installment, released in 1987. He went on to write or co-write music for the international blockbuster series through 2002's Final Fantasy XI. During that time, he released an album of original electronic keyboard music in 1994 titled Phantasmagoria, and many other game scores including 1995's Chrono Trigger (co-written with <a href="spotify:artist:7cGkvEcOOYVtNdfkf3s1tK">Yasunori Mitsuda</a>). 

In his break from the Final Fantasy series after the 11th game, he composed a film score for 2003's Ah! My Goddess: The Movie, and founded his own companies, Smile Please in 2004 and Dog Ear Records Co., Ltd. in 2006. He also provided music for over a dozen video games including 2006's Blue Dragon, and television music for the 2007 anime series based on the Blue Dragon game. Uematsu composed music for the anime television series Guin Saga in 2009, and finally returned to the Final Fantasy franchise as the main composer for Final Fantasy XIV in 2010. He continued a dedicated schedule of game scoring into the 2010s, including but not limited to 2012's Fantasy Life, 2013's Hometown Story and Granblue Fantasy (both with Tsutomu Narita), and 2014's Terra Battle. In 2015, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Square+Enix%22">Square Enix</a> released Bra Bra Final Fantasy: Brass de Bravo, the first in a series of recordings that arranged Uematsu's music from the Final Fantasy franchise for the Siena Wind Orchestra. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi

Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫, Uematsu Nobuo, born March 21, 1959) is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the Final Fantasy video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton John as one of his biggest influences.
Uematsu joined Square in 1986, where he first met Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The two later worked together on many games at the company, most notably in the Final Fantasy series. After nearly two decades with Square, Uematsu left in 2004 to create his own production company and music label, Dog Ear Records. He has since composed music as a freelancer for other games, including ones developed by Square Enix and Sakaguchi's studio Mistwalker.
Many soundtracks and arranged albums of Uematsu's game scores have been released. Pieces from his video game works have been performed in various Final Fantasy concerts, where he has worked with conductor Arnie Roth and Game Concerts producer Thomas Böcker on several of these performances. Uematsu was also the keyboardist in The Black Mages in the 2000s, which played various hard rock versions of his Final Fantasy compositions. He has since performed with the Earthbound Papas, which he formed as the successor to The Black Mages in 2011. Uematsu has made several listings in Britain's Classic FM Hall of Fame, with the station referring to him as the Beethoven of game music.

soundtrack

game-pop

Nobuo Uematsu

Nobuo Uematsu

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