David Vanacore

David Vanacore is an American television music composer. Dubbed by television music industry insiders as 'The King of Reality',^[2] David Vanacore is the composer behind many reality television series, such as Survivor, The Apprentice, Big Brother, Ink Master , American Chopper, Dirty Jobs, Hell's Kitchen, Wipeout, and Whale Wars.

Vanacore began studying piano at the age of seven.^[3] Prior to his career as a composer, he worked as a studio session pianist/keyboardist and toured with Cher, among other artists.^[2] He studied orchestration at the Dick Grove School of Music.^[4] After meeting television composer Mike Post led to an offer as his studio keyboard player, which introduced him to the world of music supervision for television.^[3]

Vanacore's first major breakout as a TV composer occurred when he landed a job with Mark Burnett for the first season of Survivor in 2000. Originating with Survivor, Vanacore developed a technique that he describes as "layers and structures," in which the composer provides music editors with a completed mix as well as isolated layers.^[5] Vanacore put together a team of composers, editors, musicians, engineers and producers, and founded Vanacore Music, a composing house headquartered in Valencia, California^[6] that produces music for unscripted television series.^[3]

As of 2023, Vanacore has won ASCAP's Most Performed Themes and Most Performed Underscore^[7] awards every year since 2005.