Liam Hotter is a freelance film and media composer and an independent music producer, based in Wellington New Zealand. His journey with music began when he was five when his parents forced him to play an instrument. Ultimately, Liam chose to learn the guitar, before branching out to learn the Clarinet and Piano during his time in high school. Whilst at University, Liam began to learn the Balinese Gamelan. Liam has a passion for storytelling, whether it be through Music, through soung, or through his weekly Dungeons and Dragons games.
Liam has been active in the composing scene since 2016 and has undergone many changes throughout his musical career. In 2017 he won a competition with his piece Mercury based on the planet of the same name. In 2021 he was an entrant into the New Zealand String Quartet workshop and had his piece You Were a Star workshopped by the quartet. In 2022 Liam was a finalist in the NZSM film scoring competition for his rescoring of the animated short film Spring. As one of 5 finalists, Liam’s piece was performed live by the NZSM orchestra at the Roxy Cinema. Also, in 2022 Liam received the highly commended award for the annual China Crossing Competition for his piece Semblance which was composed for traditional Chinese instruments, Erhu and Guzheng. In 2023 Liam released his first EP titled Introspections of the Open Heart, a collection of four pieces composed in 2022. Liam produced a music video for the title piece, which was released alongside the EP. Also in 2023 Liam wrote several film scores for the short films IT’s TV Man as well as the score to the short film What You Are, the latter of which was premiered by Victoria University in 2023. Liam also composed the score to the videogame Earthsong as part of the 2023 regenerate game jam, a yearly event that encourages people to create videogames around ecologically friendly farming practices.
To finish his masters degree, Liam worked as composer on three short films, Blackout, and Interview with Death, and Cat Hair Allergy. These three scores featured vastly different styles of music ranging from EMD to Ambient and to a blend of the orchestra with traditional Chinese Instruments.
Liam worked as an intern with composer Rhian Sheehan and assisted with the recording sessions for Rhian’s work on the LeQuesnoy exhibition in France. He also worked with Ewan Clark as recording assistant on the upcoming film Between The Aisles, scored by Alex Mandel.
Liam has a Master of Fine Arts with a specialisation in film scoring from Te Koki, The New Zealand School of Music.
