He is a graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied jazz piano and film scoring. While in college he began collaboration with one of the TV studios in Los Angeles; at the beginning he composed music as a ghost writer, but with time he has worked with international TV channels such as CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, HBO, or Discovery Channel.
His music can be heard also in Polish television productions such as Zbrodnia / Crime aired by AXN, Bez tajemnic / In Treatment aired by HBO, and directed by Agnieszka Holland and Wojciech Smarzowski, Paradox directed by Borys Lankosz and Greg Zgliński.
You will not hear too much jazz in my recent compositions. Jazz vocabulary has already gone into oblivion and given way to other genres. Jazz was an impulse for me to take up music and composition. When I was young I was spellbound with it, but over the years I’ve gotten to know and have already penetrated other types of music.
– declared Stroiński in an interview with naekranie.pl
He is the author and co-author of the scores for Hired Gun, Modjeska – Woman Triumphant and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.
In addition to his TV music production, Stroiński has successfully expanded into the gaming industry. The recent major project was the music for the third part of the saga about the Witcher - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, on which he collaborated with Marcin Przybyłowicz. He has composed the scores for two independent video games – MouseCraft and WordTrap Dungeon – as well as the trailer for Dark Souls 2. His score for The Vanishing of Ethan Carter was nominated for the Best Audio at the 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, along with three other nominations at the Annual Game Music Awards 2014. He is the winner of the Golden Dragon Award at the Digital Dragons in Kraków, in 2015.
Stroiński is a three-time finalist of the Transatlantic Festival in the category The Composer of the Year (2011, 2012 and 2013), and twice (2012 and 2013) he received an honorary mention. He is also the winner in two categories – Outstanding Contribution-Newcomer and The Best Score Orchestral / Cinematic at the Annual Game Music Awards in 2014.
Composer's website: mikolaistroinski.com/en/home.html
Author: Filip Lech, 31/07/2015, transl. GS, August, 2015