Craig Huxley
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Craig Huxley (Born on November 22, 1954 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as Craig Hundley) is a Grammy and Emmy Award-winning musician and producer who has been involved in a wide variety of entertainment-related projects since childhood. He began his career as a child actor, starring in hundreds of TV shows; perhaps his most notable role was that of Captain James T. Kirk’s nephew Peter Kirk on the original Star Trek television series. At the age of 14, Huxley led the successful and very youthful jazz band The Craig Hundley Trio, while concurrently making a name as an accomplished concert pianist, composing or revising a number of his own unique pieces. Later he garnered roles in Gene Roddenberry’s Planet Earth, as well as in Ron Howard’s first film.
After a very prolific and hard-working childhood, at age 19 Huxley took a two year hiatus, during which time he intensely studied progressive, multi-dimensional philosophy with a number of important futurists within this field. The shift in perspective gained through these teachings subsequently led to a desire and passion for musical innovation. This resulted in the creation and later patenting of many new instruments. The most recognizable of these is likely the Blaster Beam, featured in Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the "V'ger sound", and also featured on the score, composed by Jerry Goldsmith. The instrument with its dark and ominous tones has been used in many other science fiction movies over the years. Huxley also composed the "Genesis Project Demo" background music heard in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Through Huxley’s role on Star Trek both on and off-screen, he later became the Music Director for William Shatner, appearing in many shows and concerts, and helping to create songs such as Rocket Man, and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. He also created much of the special music for the first four Star Trek movies.[citation needed]
Following this, Huxley began performing most of the synthesizers on a variety of Stevie Wonder albums, and later with Earth, Wind & Fire. This prolific era culminated with a half year project in which Huxley performed most of the keyboard work on Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Further notable projects within this time period are the composition and production of the music for the fifteen year running Captain EO exhibit at Disneyland, and later the production of the soundtrack for the film 2010 (the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey).
After having been in entertainment for most of his young life, Craig Huxley founded The Enterprise Group, a multi-media conglomerate that provided services in audio, video, DVD, interactive and live productions. Enterprise in 2001 was named the #2 mixing studio in the US by Billboard Magazine, hosting artists such as Barbra Streisand, Stephen Sondheim, and John Belushi. Huxley continued to produce and create within his own studio, for 8 years composing music for Knots Landing with co-composer Jerry Immel, as well as producing the soundtrack to China Beach for two years for composer Paul Chihira. Sound mixing for the first four seasons of the television series 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland was also done at Enterprise.
As a result of his recent association with composer Paul Chihira, Huxley segued for a time into Broadway work, first producing the soundtrack for the musical Shogun, and later creating the synthesizer arrangements for City of Angels.
Currently, Craig Huxley continues to produce both music and DVD’s. In more recent years he has begun to focus on integrating his own philosophical and political beliefs into his work, most specifically involving the protection of our environment. In a recent project, through his LinkSling Shot Entertainment production company, Huxley is working with the Jules Verne Institute to produce and distribute their 20 upcoming titles which focus greatly on the preservation of our oceans. In all of his newest work Craig Huxley strives to convey the timeless and fragile beauty of nature to his audiences.
[edit] External links
- Craig Huxley a.k.a. Craig Hundley at the Internet Movie Database
- Craig Huxley article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki