Wade Tonken's expressive compositions and sound design explore a wide range of emotion and musical styles. Whether it's organic handmade kids music or a high tech, sound design thrill ride, Wade communicates with energy and nuance that translates from one genre to the next. His original work can be heard daily on Nickelodeon, Fox, ABC, NBC and PBS.

Born in Massapequa Park, New York to a show biz family, he began his musical training from his baby seat listening to Chopin Etudes, while his Mom gave ballet lessons in a ballet studio inside their Long Island home. "Even now, whenever I hear the E minor Etude, I find myself sucking my thumb uncontrollably." Piano lessons, which began at age eight, were quickly put aside for guitar during the Beatles craze. Wade became an accomplished rock guitarist and in college mastered an unusually demanding classical repertoire.

Moving to New York City in the early eighties, Wade began earning his reputation as a multi-instrumentalist with his band "Boyslife" where he played guitar and keyboards at the same time. The band won MTV's basement tapes and was an important stage in his evolution.

After "Boyslife" he opened his first recording studio and started producing music for Film, TV and Advertising. It wasn't too long before he found himself drawn to childrens television and started working steadily with Disney, Sesame Workshop and Nickelodeon. As musical director of "Nick Jr. Playalong", Wade created an incredible palette of "handmade" sounds using groundbreaking software. Other projects include Nickelodeon's "Kids Pick the President," SpongeBob "Pest of the West", ABC's "Good Morning America", A&E's "Our Generation" and the Sundance Award winning "Education of Shelby Knox."