Morgan Byers

Morgan Byers, from Fort Jones, California, is a passionate 23-year-old (9 February 1999) composer, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer specializing in music for media. His greatest passion is collaborating with other creatives. He enjoys working with the amazing musicians, filmmakers, and other storytellers of the world. He also enjoys working with orchestral, electronic, folk, and ethnic elements to tell inspiring stories through sound.

Morgan started playing the violin at the young age of five. He later learned to play the piano, organ, and cello. He even made himself a tin whistle out of a broom handle and learned to play the marimba (a little). After performing as an orchestral cellist and participating in competitions, he shifted gears, and his new-found aspiration was to become a composer and an audio engineer. In time, he became a recording studio intern, which afforded him the opportunity to study and learn the different aspects of engineering music. 

Morgan Byers was once the personal music arranger for Latter-day Saint music artist Mary Hiett who currently resides in Etna, California. He came under her tutelage as his piano teacher when he was about 10 or 11 years of age. Much to his parents’ chagrin, although they had a love for 60s and 70s music, Morgan preferred classical music over any other genre, and loved the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, particularly his “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” In fact, anything that he could get his hands on that had Bach’s name on it made him happy.

From those early days, Mary Hiett recalls that she immediately realized that he was a passionate young man. She said, “He truly was one of those young men that had an old soul in a young body.” Mary also recalls that one day Morgan’s father asked her if she could get Morgan to stop practicing the piano so much. She replied, “NO!!! If you need to go take a walk, take a walk.”

As he was homeschooled, he was not always aware of the different genres of music that were available. So, one day Mary felt inspired to introduce him to The Piano Guys and he was absolutely awestruck by the music that could be played on a piano. She told Morgan, “All you must do is think out-of-the-box like these young men did. You have the same abilities, drive, and passion.”

As Mary Hiett’s personal arranger, Morgan produced her CD, Notes from the Heart, as well as her CD, The Best of Mary Hiett (Bar None). He also helped to arrange and produce many of her other songs.

Morgan attended the Hollywood Music Workshop in Austria and studied under film composer Joe Kraemer (Mission Impossible, Rogue Nation). His other mentors include Scott Healy (The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien) and Bob Magnuson (B.B. King, Frank Zappa's Universe.)

Over the years, Morgan has continued to collect and build instruments. He is self-taught on Irish whistles, guitar, bass, and percussion, to name but a few of the many instruments that he plays. He has also composed the music for several short films, contributed cues to features, and creates production music for license in ads, YouTube videos, and trailers. His credits as a cellist include recording cello for multiple film scores, albums, and singles for numerous artists.

Morgan Byers is not only remarkable in his musical ability, but he is remarkable in his character!

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