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News 2007
- February 6, 2007
- Tommy Tallarico Honored at First Annual Dream Awards
Hollywood Arts Event to Host Charity Auction Including a Cameo in HALO 3 - LOS ANGELES – Feb. 6, 2007 – Hollywood Arts, a progressive non-profit organization that reaches homeless and at-risk teenagers through the arts, is honoring video game industry icon Tommy Tallarico at the first annual Dream Awards. The event will raise funding and awareness for the charity. An auction coinciding with the event will include a dream cameo for gamers: an opportunity to be in the highly anticipated video game, HALO 3 for the Xbox 360.
- “I am deeply honored to receive the Dream Awards recognition,” Tommy Tallarico, said. “The video game industry has been the arena of arts where I realized my dream. I’d like to send the message to struggling young people on the streets that it is possible to live theirs.”
- Proceeds from the event, which will be held Feb. 17th at Raleigh Studios, will be donated to Hollywood Arts to complete the renovation of a full service art and media center in Los Angeles. The dinner and award ceremony will feature the COS Players, actors who dress as players of the games, and the Hollywood Studio Symphony, a 36-piece orchestra, will be performing at the event. Individual tickets and tables for the Dream Awards are available at www.hollywood-arts.org
or by calling (323) 656-5274. - The Dream Awards will host an auction on eBay with several game industry items including an audio cameo in the upcoming game HALO 3, a Master Chief statue, a tour of the Bungie Studios and signed video game paraphernalia of games such as Guitar Hero 2 and by artists such as Yugi Naki, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog. The auction, hosted on MissionFish, will begin on Feb. 17th at 7 pm PST and will close on Feb. 24th.
- “It was important for us to build relationships with the video gaming community,” said Dylan Kendall, executive director of Hollywood Arts. “Our students gravitate to games. We recognize gaming can work as a learning activity. Video games can be used to promote emotional health and serve as an important vehicle to teach our students critical life and job-readiness skills.”
- Tommy Tallarico is a veritable video game industry icon. As one of the most successful video game composers in history, he has helped revolutionize the gaming world, creating unique audio landscapes that enhance the video gaming experience. Tommy is the creator and executive producer of Video Games Live, the biggest video game concert tour in the world. Tommy hosts, writes and co-produces the television shows Reviews on the Run and the Telly Award winning Electric Playground. He is the founder and CEO of G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting excellence in interactive audio. An accomplished musician, Tallarico has been writing music for video games for more than 17 years. In 1994, he founded Tommy Tallarico Studios, the multimedia industry’s largest post-production audio house. He has won over 25 industry awards for best video game audio and has worked on more than 250 game titles.
- Hollywood Arts reaches homeless and at-risk teenagers through classes in video-games, music, movies, writing, fashion, hair, makeup and animation, giving them artistic training and a chance to improve their self-esteem, heal trauma, create a new community of supportive friends and mentors as well as learn critical life and job-readiness skills to transition them off the streets and into jobs in the creative industries.
- ABOUT HOLLYWOOD ARTS
Hollywood Arts was founded to provide a range of arts classes, creative activities and job-readiness training for at-risk, runaway and homeless teenagers and young adults in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Founded by Dylan Kendall, the organization is slated to move into classroom and office space for its programs at 1671 N. Western Ave., next to the famed Louis B. Mayer Building at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue. For more information, please visit www.hollywood-arts.org. - Contact:
Laura Weir
fortyseven communications
323-658-1200
laura@fortyseven.com