About Craig Sharmat
Born in New York City, Craig's earliest musical influences while he was studying classical piano in grade school would have been Prokofiev and Copland. When his love of the guitar transitioned him away from piano, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would play a separate yet equally important influence. As his guitar playing progressed, he expanded his palette to include John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra and other fusion bands which would lead the way to a passionate appreciation for the styles of players such as Larry Carlton, Pat Metheny and George Benson.
Craig began his musical career playing in various bands and Las Vegas showrooms. From there he landed himself the position of guitarist as well as conductor for platinum selling jazz saxophonist Ronnie Laws. Soon after, an opportunity to play with top selling jazz vocalist Randy Crawford arose. At this time was also gaining a reputation as more than just a guitarist.
In the course of his stints for these jazz artists, Craig developed a keen interest in composing for film and television. He landed his first major gig with the Disney series "Kids Incorporated", where he worked one on one composing and arranging songs for notable actors Brittany Murphy, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Eric Balfour. From there he went on to scoring sports specials including "Greatest Moments of the U.S Open" for ABC and "Champions on Ice" featuring Dick Enberg for NBC as well as tackling the animation genre in series like "Men In Black", "Dragon Tales" , "CatDog" , "The Adventures of Jackie Chan" among many others. Also during this time he started working on John Walsh's "America's Most Wanted" which he continues to write for today. Craig also scored the Court TV series Suburban Secrets and the 2007 MTV Movie Awards Opening.
Craig also wrote songs that were in "CSI: Miami", Nora Ephron's film "This is My Life" and CBS's "Without a Trace" as well as trailer music for films such as Anchor Man, King Kong, Spiderman 3, Ghostrider, Live Free Die Hard, etc. He has also worked on rap artist Skeelo's Grammy nominated album, "I Wish" and arranged and programmed for chart topping Jazz Icon Rick Braun's album "Yours Truly". He also arranged strings on Peter White, Mindy Abair and Rick Braun's 2007 Christmas Album. Craig has also ventured into composing music for games, and has written for three Sony Playstation titles through Game Audio Ltd . (A thorough resume can be found on the link above).
2008-10 has been an especially busy time for Craig. He landed two full length documentaries from Academy Award Nominee Dori Bernstein including the critically acclaimed movie "Gotta Dance" (gottadancethemovie.com). He also scored the main title and original music for the top rated show "The Real Housewives of New Jersey". During this time he also composed the music to 3 MSNBC documentaries and has 3 series out on Discovery "Prison Wives", "Verdict You Decide" and "I'm Pregnant And". He wrote jingles for Disney, promo music for ABC and played guitar on Disney's America Idol Commercials and Xmas Parade. He also arranged for Yanni's "Voices" live tour.
Craig also finds himself in a unique position in his career as a solo artist. Always a sideman Craig decided it was time to give the artist route a try and released his first jazz album "So Cal Drivin". The single of the same name spent 4 months on the "Billboard" Smooth Jazz Indicator Charts.
A supporter
of music technology, Craig has beta tested and supported various
companies. Among those are VSL, East West, Sonivox, Project Sam and the
new string library from Audio bro LASS. As well as his support
for these companies, he has been involved in the recording of five
private orchestral libraries specifically designed to supplement some
of the requirements he and a handful of fellow composers have. With his
knowledge of the sample medium, Virtual Instruments asked Craig to be a
regular contributer to their publication. Craig attended both Syracuse
University and University of Arizona and is also a graduate of Lyle
Spud Murphy's EIS system.
Craig has played on over a thousand TV episodes and many movies as both a hired session player and as embellishment to his own composing.
Craig has been featured in Mix Magazine and Virtual Instrument Magazine. The link to the Mix article can be found here on this page.
Craig also runs and operates the
Scoredog Music Library containing over 2000 original pieces for media.
As well as his plethora of music credits, Craig is pleased to have co-authored three children's books for the world renown Nate the Great Series and has achieved professional tennis instructor status from the U.S.P.T.A .