Jim Daneker is an award-winning and Billboard-charting composer & producer with a diverse musical career.
In addition to 26 years as keyboardist, musical director, and producer for CCM icon Michael W. Smith, he has also produced several #1 albums and composed music for film, including invitations to compose trailers for Hollywood blockbusters such as the Fast and The Furious franchise, Transformers 2, Chronicles of Narnia, several Disney projects, Walden Media’s Amazing Grace, and more.
After 2 decades of serving other artists, Jim took 2 years to pursue his dream of scoring a cinematic instrumental album, titled AD ALTA (Latin for To The Summit). Released June 2017, AD ALTA debuted at #25 on the Billboard Contemporary Classical chart. This project fuses soaring melodies reminiscent of timeless film scores like Star Wars, Gladiator and E.T. with creative synth textures, ethnic instruments, massive percussion and driving pop/rock grooves, all wrapped in lush orchestration and supported by top session players from around the world.
In 2018, Jim produced a cinematic Christmas album by instrumental star Paul Cardall. This #1 album debuted on an unprecedented nine Billboard charts simultaneously and won a Dove award for Instrumental Album of the Year.
Jim currently divides his time between composing for film & TV, producing for other artists, and developing a series of virtual instruments and content for his BackStage Pass series.