Entertainment industry mourns local sound editor

Patrick Yacono ~ 1969-2007

Officials in the television and film industry are mourning the sudden loss of a talented musician, composer and sound editor from North Barrington.

Patrick Yacono died after suffering a heart attack Saturday. He was 38.

For several years, he and his wife, Christy, operated a full-service audio post-production company in their home, with a state-of-the-art recording studio that handled sound for feature films and videos.

Most recently, he worked as a sound designer for Electronic Arts in Chicago.

Yacono's sound credits included 30 film projects, from working on "High School Musical 2" to a project with former Bulls player Dickey Simpkins to videos for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington.

His last project wrapped up in August, in which he composed the music for a 13-minute video called "Fast Forward," originally produced for a multi-day, leadership summit mounted by the Willow Creek Association, and fed by satellite around the world.

"When we called him, we told him we were putting together a history of the Christian church, set to hip-hop and street poetry," said Greg Ferguson, co-executive producer, with the Willow Creek Association, "and we asked him to set it to music and score it.

"He wrote the most beautiful, cinematic, amazing music," Ferguson added. "It's now being played in churches all over the world."

Another recent project paired him with Simpkins.

"I brought this concept to him about mentoring kids," Simpkins said, "and he ran with it. He shot the video and added the music. He had such a great creative mind, with great vision to develop these unbelievable projects."

Christy Yacono says film officials were willing to commute out to North Barrington for his work, taking in the rural atmosphere as well as the home setting of their studio.

"What they liked about Patrick was that he could do everything," she said. "His titles included supervising sound editor, re-recording mixer, composer and editor."

She added that his work with Willow Creek and charity projects like "Dream for Kids" were as important to him as his commercial jobs, and they reflected his deep faith and grounding as a family man.

"He was a dedicated husband and father," Christy Yacono said. "He always put his family first."

Besides his wife, Yacono is survived by his 9-year old daughter Lauren; parents Tony and Sandy Yacono; and brothers Mark and Tony Jr.

Visitation will begin at 4 p.m. Sunday before a 6 p.m. funeral service at Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Road in South Barrington.