William Stankay is a composer, musician & sound designer specializing in atmospheric music production. His music flows into multiple streams, utilizing innovative sound architecture to shape the sonic landscapes in his work.
In the summer of 2012, William traveled to the Arctic region of Svalbard to develop an environmentally-inspired music experience featuring the mysterious sounds of Arctic wildlife seamlessly blended with his own musical interpretation of the remote archipelago. In 2013, he was awarded with an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Pittsburgh Arts Council to help fund the release of a debut album created using his Earthtones-style Arctic instrumentation. He debuted the project for the first time in a live setting at the Oaks Theater in April of 2015, performing in front of a dynamic visual show featuring drone footage of the Svalbard glacier regions shot by photographer Peter Cox; timelapse & wildlife footage shot at the Polar Station in Hornsund by Witek Kaszkin; film contributions from Polar Bears International and excerpts from the lectures of glaciologist Doug Benn & bear specialist Rupert Pilkington. He has traveled extensively to expand his Earthtones project with sound design expeditions to the South Central area of Alaska, Iceland, Shenandoah National Forest, Joshua Tree National Park, South Dakota and the streets of New York City.
His work as a composer includes an original ocean-themed score for Vice's "Designing A Plastic-Free World" campaign for adidas; original music for Powerade's commercial campaign starring NBA player Damian Lillard; trailer music for the Lionsgate film "Deepwater Horizon", directed by Peter Berg (Lone Survivor) and starring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Hudson, Dylan O' Brien, Kurt Russell and John Malkovich; and additional music in collaboration with Jongnic Bontemps on the original Lifetime movie "Faith Under Fire", starring Toni Braxton. He has scored the feature film "A Fancy Piece of Homicide" (directed by Joseph Varhola & starring Bingo O'Malley/Mark Tierno); "Amy" by director Ran Ro; "Pass Me By" by director Jared Passante; "Stargazer" by director Luke Keibler; and an original score and soundtrack album for "Samantha Moonley's Greatest Feeling" (directed by Garrett Kennell/David Light).
His notable sound design work includes collaborations with composer Jongnic Bontemps for Steven Caple Jr's "The Land" and sonic landscapes for composer Steven Lebetkin's "Cycles of the Earth" ballet.
He is currently working in his Sunfall studios on the debut albums in the Earthtones series, slated for release in 2018-19. He is also currently scoring the upcoming documentary "Blood Memory", directed by Drew Nicholas.
To hear some of his work, please visit our Music & Scoring pages.