A film titled Nina about the legendary musician Nina Simone was released today. I orchestrated the film score with composer Ruy Folguera, and we recorded the score in Prague. The film was written and directed by Cynthia Mort and stars Zoe Saldana.
Ben Hur plays with Pacific Symphony
Ben Hur played yesterday and today with the Pacific Symphony in Orange County. It was a pleasure to see it play in Southern California, and of course it’s always fun to watch Stewart play as featured percussionist for 90 minutes. It’s a very energetic and powerful score, and I love to see how the audience gets fully immersed in a silent film that’s nearly 100 years old.
I workedon this show with Stewart Copeland on and off throughout 2014 while he wrote new music for the most expensive silent film ever made. I helped him with orchestrations, did all the score prep for him, and helped him manage the technical hurdles of keeping a live orchestra in sync with film for 90 minutes straight. In late 2014 it was premiered by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra as part of the Virginia Arts Festival, and it has since played in many other cities.
These two shows were at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts in Orange county, and next weekend it will play again at the The Soraya, the performing arts center at Cal State Northridge.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
On February 21, 2016 the Pittsburgh Symphony premiered a symphony which I orchestrated for composer Stewart Copeland. Originally a smaller commission from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, we expanded it to a full 3-movement symphony entitled Tyrant’s Crush. In addition to orchestrating for Stewart I also was the music copyist and engraver for sheet music publisher G. Schirmer.
Fun story about this piece:
My first project with Stewart was in 2010, a large one for the Dallas Symphony which required a lot of time for instrumental parts preparation. While doing that work I was listening to a lot of Stewart’s music, and late at night I landed on a track called Regret. It was the last track of a compilation album, only one minute long, almost thrown away, but it had a nice quiet vibe. I left it on repeat for hours while working in the middle of the night.
The CD liner notes, in tiny print, on the last page, also thrown away, said this little theme was one of his favorite and he hopes to make it into something larger one day. It was only piano and bass, and it sounded like virtual instruments. My guess was that it had never been transcribed, so I wrote it down for him.
My little transcription sat prominently on a music stand near his workstation for a long time, and eventually he got around to it. One of the prominent themes in this symphony Tyrant’s Crush is that theme from Regret.
Cask of Amontillado opera
The American Modern Ensemble performed the world premiere of new orchestrations of Stewart Copeland’s The Cask of Amontillado based on the story by Edgar Allen Poe. Stewart wrote the opera many years ago for a smaller ensemble, and I helped him re-orchestrate the show for AME’s orchestra. I was also the music copyist and did the music engravings for G. Schirmer.
Nina Simone biopic
Today we finished recording the film score for Nina, a biopic about the late jazz musician and classical pianist Nina Simone. We recorded the orchestra in Prague and the rest of the musicians in Los Angeles, and the film will be released in March 2016. The film stars Zoe Saldana and is directed by Cynthia Mort. The film composer is Ruy Folguera, and I was the orchestrator and music copyist.
Freaks Of Nature film released
Today Colombia Pictures released the film Freaks Of Nature. It’s a comedy horror film directed by Robbie Pickering and written by Oren Uziel. Previously titled “Misfits” and “Kitchen Sink,” the baseline “normal” in this world is vampires, humans and zombies coexisting, but it all goes wrong of course. The film was scored by Fil Eisler, and I orchestrated for him with Penka Kouneva.
The Last Witch Hunter
Vin Diesel stars in The Last Witch Hunter, an epic Halloween fantasy adventure which was released today. I did additional orchestrations for the film under Penka Kouneva (lead orchestrator) and Steve Jablonsky (film composer).
Recording a new opera
I was orchestrator and co-producer for a new Opera by composer Mark Abel. We had an all-star cast of musicians and the album will be released on the Delos label in 2016. It was a deep collaboration between Mark and I which lasted about a year, and it was a real pleasure to work on. The session was conducted by Benjamin Makino and the musicians were contracted by Timothy Loo.
-
- Recording Home Is A Harbor at The Bridge in Glendale
-
- Composer Mark Abel and head of the Delos label Carol Rosenberger
-
- Some of our singers
-
- Producing the rehearsals before recording
-
- Our massive percussion layout!
-
- Fixing the Vibraphone parts with John Goodman
The $99 Orchestra
The $99 Orchestra is a new business venture in Lisbon, Portugal, which sells orchestral recording session time slots in smaller segments and at lower prices than ever before. Not everybody needs or wants three hours with an orchestra, and even fewer people could afford it. Their intention is to make orchestral recording available to the masses with highly flexible shared sessions.
I just finished orchestrating some music for composer Robert Charlton which will be recorded using this new orchestra at the end of the month for a music library. I am very eager to hear the quality of their performances and production, because if it’s good enough this orchestra has the potential to democratize orchestral recording and make MIDI recordings less common. Wouldn’t that be nice??