West Texas–born composer, pianist, educator, and music technologist Harlan Hodges writes, performs, and records music that blends the lonesome, smoky atmospheres of the American Southwest with the lush harmonic language of jazz and the vibrant melodies of the Hollywood Golden Age. Educated in the classical tradition, self-taught as a jazz musician, and a lifelong tinkerer and builder, he moves fluidly between styles, improvisation, performance, technology, and craftsmanship. The soulful call of the blues, the rolling rhythms of Western swing, the drive of rock, and the great orchestral literature have all shaped an eclectic, versatile approach to scoring and playing in the modern music world. His neo-Southern-gospel piano style and distinctive approach to slip-note and stride playing give him an unmistakable voice reminiscent of the great session pianists of the Country-Western swing and Nashville Sound eras. With thoughtful phrasing, a poetic sense of time, a deeply rich tone, and a thoroughly modern classical-orchestral foundation, his playing has made him a first-call recording artist for some of the world's leading conductors, composers, and recording artists. He is equally at home on the scoring stage, in the concert hall, in a jazz club, or in a honky-tonk.

Harlan is in demand in the Los Angeles recording scene as a session pianist, composer, orchestrator, and conductor, and has worked on every historic LA scoring stage and performance venue, including 20th Century Fox, the MGM/Sony lot, Warner Bros., Capitol Records, and the Hollywood Bowl. He has served as principal pianist since 2022 for several of the greater Los Angeles–area orchestras, including the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, Riverside Symphony Orchestra, San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra, and the Hollywood Scoring Orchestra, where he is a regularly featured soloist. From 2015 to 2025, he served as principal score reader for the audio department at LA Opera, working on more than 35 opera productions and live simulcasts.

Among his most cherished collaborations, Harlan was rehearsal pianist for cellist Lynn Harrell on John Williams's album Across the Stars (2019); co-scored Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge (2019) with composer and pianist Randy Kerber; played and performed with Steely Dan's Donald Fagen on Peter More's album Beautiful Disrepair (2018); and arranged for guitarist Steve Vai. Most recently, he performed piano on the Emmy-nominated opening theme for Netflix's The Residence (2025); served as principal pianist on Pixar's Hoppers (2026), scored by Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh; performed the celeste part alongside Danny Elfman for Disney's Nightmare Before Christmas Live (2025) at the Hollywood Bowl; and played piano for Seth Rogen's Netflix Is a Joke show at the Hollywood Bowl alongside Snoop Dogg (2024). He also performed the "Shark Theme" with the Hollywood Scoring Orchestra at the Academy Museum's opening of Jaws: The Exhibition (2025) alongside Steven Spielberg, and played piano on sessions for Michael Bublé's upcoming 2026 album.

He is the founder and CEO of What Is Artistry, a music-production and technology company building tools for working composers at the intersection of tradition and technology — including The Ear Engineer, a passive ear-training app; Echo Graph, a GPS-based audio immersion platform for composers; and Composer Tools, a suite exploring creativity and automation in the studio. He is also currently authoring a book, The So What Method, which explores harmony through Bill Evans's iconic "So What" voicings.

He is the 2019 recipient of the David Rose Award from the ASCAP Foundation, was a finalist for the American Prize in composition for his solo piano work Three American Etudes (2017–2018), and is an alumnus of the 2019 ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, the SESAC Scores Composer Workshop, the GRAMMY NEXT Program, and the SCL Mentors program.

Harlan is currently Lecturer in Music Recording at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, where he is building the recording program and teaching alongside an active international performance and recording career spanning film, television, documentaries, video games, theme park attractions, concerts, and records. He now lives in North Texas with his wife and two sons.