Akira Ifukube
Born: 31 May 1914, Hokkaido, Japan. Died: 8 February 2006.
Background: Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies. Born in a rural part of Japan, the third son of a Shinto priest, Ifukube was strongly influenced by ancient Japanese and Ainu musical traditions, and studied the violin and the shamisen as a child. Ifukube studied forestry at Hokkaido University, composing only in his spare time, but began to develop more of a musical reputation when his first orchestral piece, ‘Japanese Rhapsody’, won first prize in an international contest for young composers promoted by Alexander Tcherepnin. Ifukube continued to study modern Western composition with Tcherepnin, and in 1938 his Piano Suite obtained an honourable mention at the ICSM festival in Venice. In the late 1930s his music, especially Japanese Rhapsody, was performed in Europe on a number of occasions. Ifukube worked as a forestry officer and lumber processor, and towards the end of the Second World War was appointed by the Japanese Imperial Army to study the elasticity and vibratory strength of wood. He suffered radiation exposure after carrying out x-rays without protection, a consequence of the wartime lead shortage, and had to abandon forestry work and became a professional composer and teacher. From 1946 to 1953 he taught at the Nihon University College of Art, during which period he composed his first film score for “The End of the Silver Mountains”, released in 1947. Over the next fifty years, he would compose more than 250 film scores, the high point of which was his 1954 music for “Godzilla”. Ifukube also created Godzilla's trademark roar - produced by rubbing a resin-covered leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass - and its footsteps, created by striking an amplifier box. Despite his financial success as a film composer, Ifukube's first love had always been classical music. In 1974, he returned to teaching at the Tokyo College of Music, becoming president of the college the following year, and in 1987 'retired' to become president of the College's ethnomusicology department. The Japanese government awarded him the Order of Culture and the Order of the Sacred Treasures in 1994. He died in Tokyo at the Meguro-Ku Hospital of multiple organ failure in February 2006 aged 91. Despite his domestic success, he never scored a film outside Japan.
Highlight Scores: Godzilla, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, Godzilla vs. Destroyer, Godzilla 2000.
Alberto Iglesias
Born: 1955, Guipúzcoa, Spain.
Background: One of Spain's leading film music composers, who is most famous internationally for his work on the films of cult director Pedro Almodóvar. Studied in his home city of San Sebastian, and in Paris, and began his career as an exponent of synthesisers and electronic music, collaborating with fellow composer Javier Navarrete on several albums of original music which were modest successes in Spain. Began composing for film 1984, with "The Conquest of Albania", and has since gone on to score almost 30 critically acclaimed films, many of them for director Pedro Almodovar, winning six Goya Awards (Spanish Oscars) along the way. Among his most high profile assignments are films such as “Live Flesh” (1997), “All About My Mother” (1999), “Sex and Lucia” (2001), “Hable Con Ella” (2002) and “Bad Education” (2004). Broke into the international mainstream in 2005 with his score for “The Constant Gardener”, which unexpectedly picked up Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Score, and looks set to be the leading light in Spanish film music for years to come.
Highlight Scores: Vacas, The Red Squirrel, The Flower of My Secret, Live Flesh!, Tierra, Lovers of the Arctic Circle, All About My Mother, Sex and Lucia, Hable Con Ella, The Dancer Upstairs, Bad Education, The Constant Gardener.
Awards: Oscar and BAFTA nominations for “The Constant Gardener” (2005).
Ángel Illarramendi
Born: April 1958, Zarautz (Gipuzkoa), Spain.
Background: Basque Spanish composer, whose full name is Ángel Illarramendi Larrañaga, well known and well respected in Spain, but largely unknown outside his domestic market. Sang at music festivals around the Basque Country as a child, and was a self-taught guitarist, before studying music and piano with María Bárbara Aranguren, and harmony, counterpoint, fugue and composition studies with Francisco Escudero. Recorded his first album of songs in 1978, and worked with the Basque Theatre School "Antzerti" in San Sebastian in the early 1980s, writing music for stage plays while supplementing his income teaching music at different schools around the region. Began to dedicate entirely to compose both concert and cinema music at the beginning of the 1990s. Since then his output has included such acclaimed and popular scores as “El Último Viaje de Robert Rylands” (1996), “Cuando Vuelvas a Mi Lado” (1999), “Aunque Tú No Lo Sepas” (2000), “Héctor” (2004), “Luna de Avellaneda” (2004), and the hit Argentinean movie “El Hijo de la Novia” (“Son of the Bride”). In addition to his film work, Illaramendi has also written a number of concert pieces, including a “Concerto for clarinet, piano, viola and orchestra", symphonic poems entitled "Espacio Sonriente" and "Zarautz", the orchestral work "Una Historia Reciente", a vocal "Mass for 4 mixed voices and organ", and the chamber opera "Zapatos de Mujer".
Highlight Scores: El Último Viaje de Robert Rylands, Twice Upon a Yesterday, Cuando Vuelvas a Mi Lado, Presence of Mind, Aunque Tú No Lo Sepas, El Hijo de la Novia, Héctor, Luna de Avellaneda.
Links: Official Site.
Ernest Irving
Born: 6 November 1878, Godalming, England. Died: 24 October 1953.
Background: British composer and arranger of the 1940s and 50s who spent the majority of his career as the resident music director of the famous Ealing Studios during its heyday. Made his film music debut in 1934, and joined Ealing in 1938, subsequently overseeing the music on almost 50 films, including classics such as "Passport to Pimlico", "The Lavender Hill Mob", "The Man in the White Suit" and "The Cruel Sea". While regularly working with composers as varied as Georges Auric, Benjamin Frankel, Alan Rawsthorne, John Ireland, Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Walton, he even found time to write some 25 scores of his own, including the well loved "Whiskey Galore!" (1949) and "King Hearts and Coronets" (1949), and was still hard at work when he died suddenly in 1953, at the age of 74.
Highlight Scores: The Ghost of St. Michael's, My Learned Friend, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Whiskey Galore!, A Run For Your Money.
Ashley Irwin
Born: Sydney, Australia.
Background: Talented Australian composer and arranger who, through no fault of his own, is best known internationally for his work on a number of Hollywood soft-porn "erotic thrillers" in the 1990s. First emerged into the film music scene in the late 1970s, working as an arranger on a number of Australian pictures, before being taken to Hollywood as a protégé of Bill Conti. Scored his first film in 1985, and enjoyed a brief period of success writing for TV series such as "Richmond Hill", "E Street" and "Dark Justice", before being lured into the murky world of notorious producer Zalman King and the equally notorious director Alexander Gregory Hippolyte, scoring a number of films starring the likes of Shannon Whirry and Tracy Tweed. Despite these less than salubrious connections, Irwin remained successful in Hollywood, providing arrangements for the Oscars telecast since 1990, and winning an Emmy for his pains for his work on the 1992 Academy Awards presentation. He has also won a slew of advertising awards, including the 1989 IMMEDIA Award for "Composer/Producer/Arranger of the Year".
Highlight Scores: Body of Influence, Mirror Images II, Undercover Heat, Secret Games 3, The Expert, The Maker.
Björn Isfält
Born: 28 June 1942, Linköping, Sweden. Died: 18 January 1997.
Background: One of the most popular and successful Swedish film composers of the 1970s and 80s. Is best known internationally for his work on the Oscar nominated "My Life as a Dog" (1985), and the critically acclaimed "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993), which he co-wrote with Alan Parker, and which was the only Hollywood assignment of his career. Was awarded a special Guldbagge (Swedish Oscar) for his services to film in 1990, but sadly, Isfält died of cancer in 1997, aged just 54, before his talent could be properly discovered by a wider international audience.
Highlight Scores: Bröderna Lejonhjätra, Göta Kanal, Ronja Rövardottir, My Life as a Dog, Ånglagård, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Kådisbellan.
Paul Jabara
Born: 31 January 1948, Brooklyn, New York. Died: 29 September 1992.
Background: Songwriter, actor and composer Paul Jabara was an integral part of the disco movement in the 70s. After spending much of the 60s as a jobbing – but largely unsuccessful - artist in and around the nigh spots of New York, he first came to prominence as a member of the cast of the Broadway production of “Hair”, and as King Herod in the original London production of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. He scored his first film, “The Lords of Flatbush” in 1974, and wrote original music for the ambulance driving comedy “Mother, Jugs & Speed” in 1976, but truly burst into the limelight when the "queen of disco", Donna Summer, recorded Paul's Oscar-winning song ‘Last Dance’ for the movie “Thank God It's Friday” in 1978. As a songwriter, Jabara’s career is also closely associated with Barbra Streisand, who he ushered into the dance movement after she sang his title song for the movie “The Main Event” in 1979. Streisand and Summer also dueted on Jabara’s best-selling album "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)". His other songs include the Weather Girls' anthem "It's Raining Men", which he wrote with David Letterman’s bandleader Paul Shaffer. As an actor, Jabara also found time to appear in such films as “Midnight Cowboy” (1968), “Medea” (1969) “The Out-of-Towners” (1970), “The Day of the Locust” (1975) and “Legal Eagles” (1986), as well as his own films “The Lords of Flatbush” and “Thank God It's Friday”. A homosexual, Jabara was a prominent campaigner for sexual equality and gay rights, and upon discovering he was HIV+, helped found the symbolic Red Ribbon Project was co-founded by Paul in 1991, who conceptualized and distributed the very first AIDS red ribbon. Jabara succumbed to the disease himself in September 1992, aged 44.
Highlight Scores: The Lords of Flatbush, Mother Jugs and Speed, Thank God It's Friday, The Main Event.
Awards: Oscar and Golden Globe for “Thank God It’s Friday” (1978); further Golden Globe nomination for “The Main Event” (1979).
Links: Official Site.
Steve Jablonsky
Born: 9 October 1970.
Background: One of Hollywood's up-and-coming talents, Steve Jablonsky studied music at the University of California in Berkeley, and scored a small number of independent features before joining joined Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures organisation in 1996 as an assistant to Harry Gregson-Williams. During the years that followed, Jablonsky assisted more senior composers such as Gregson-Williams, Trevor Rabin and Zimmer himself with orchestration and music programming, and wrote 'additional music' on projects such as "Smilla's Sense of Snow" "Armageddon", "Antz", "Chicken Run", "Hannibal", "Pearl Harbor", "Bad Boys II" and "Pirates of the Caribbean". He made an especially notable contribution to Zimmer's score for "Tears of the Sun" in 2003, and got his first solo break writing music for director Marcus Nispel's remake of the horror classic "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2003). Since then Jablonsky has gradually been making in-roads into developing a solid solo career of his own, scoring the critically acclaimed Anime feature “Steamboy” in 2004, the Jerry Bruckheimer action pic “The Island” in 2005, and acting as lead composer on the hit ABC TV series “Desperate Housewives”. Look for big things from him in future.
Highlight Scores: Live from Baghdad, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Steamboy, The Amityville Horror, The Island, Desperate Housewives (TV).
Alexander Janko
Born:
Background: Alexander "Xandy" Janko, best known as one of Hollywood's foremost orchestrators, began his career as a songwriter and bandleader, having been mentored as a child by the legendary Paul Anka. He studied music composition and performance at Princeton University, and undertook private study in jazz, rock, pop. After winning a national songwriting competition organised by Billboard, Janko entered the world of film in the early 1990s, initially as an intern working for Alan Silvestri, and subsequently as a freelance orchestrator and arranger. Since then, Janko has collaborated most regularly with David Newman, having orchestrated all his scores between 1994 and 2000, but has also worked with Christopher Young, Marc Shaiman, Trevor Jones, and with R.E.M. on their rock score for "Man on the Moon" (1999). He first came to prominence as a solo composer with his score for the smash hit comedy "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002), and looks to have a promising future. In addition to his film work, Janko has also written a number of commissioned jazz scores, and recently completed a four-movement symphonic and choral piece commemorating the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which was premiered at the St. Imre Cathedral in Budapest, Hungary.
Highlight Scores: The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Werner Janssen
Born: 1 June 1900, New York, New York. Died: 19 September 1990.
Background: American conductor, composer and songwriter, best known for his work in the classical arena, but who contributed music to a number of successful films in the 1930s and 40s. After studying with Frederick Converse he was awarded an honorary dipoloma from Dartmouth College, and a Prix de Rome from The American Academy in Rome. He began his career as Arturo Toscanini’s associate conductor at the New York Philharmonic in 1934, and went on to conduct symphony orchestras throughout the world. He founded the Janssen Symphony in Los Angeles in 1940, and was conductor of the Baltimore Symphony between 1937 and 1939, the Utah Symphony between 1946-1947, the Portland Symphony between 1947-1949, the San Diego Symphony between 1952-1954, the Symphony of the Air Orchestra in 1956, the Toronto Symphony between 1956-1957, and the Belgrade Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestras between 1959 and 1961. Although his work in Hollywood was limited, he did manage to accrue five Oscar nominations in his time, for Henry Fonda Spanish Civil War movie “Blockade” in 1939, the David Niven/Loretta Young comedy “Eternally Yours” in 1940, the Jean Renoir-directed drama “The Southerner”, the film noir classic “Guest in the House”, and the Charles Laughton pirate epic “Captain Kidd”, all in 1946. He was a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and a Knight First Class of the Order White Rose in Finland. He died in September 190, aged 90.
Highlight Scores: The General Died at Dawn, Blockade, Eternally Yours, The Southerner, Guest in the House, Captain Kidd, A Night in Casablanca, Ruthless.
Awards: Oscar nominations for Blockade, Eternally Yours, The Southerner, Guest in the House and Captain Kidd.
Mark Jensen
Born: 1960, Eastbourne, England.
Background: Talented English composer who, sadly, has never got the breaks. Played piano, trumpet and classical guitar as a child, and was writing music for regional theatre in the 1980s while studying at the Northern Film School in Leeds. Began writing music for film in the mid-1990s, and enjoyed brief success with a succession of TV pilots, which finally culminated in him writing the score for the 1998 independent feature "Monk Dawson", which sank like a stone and disappeared without a trace. Sadly, Jensen's subsequent output has been limited to two short films, a rejected demo for the Bond film "The World Is Not Enough", and a solo project called "Zoom In: The Zest Zone", which seems to be in permanent hiatus. A shame.
Highlight Scores: Monk Dawson, Eviction, Stradivarius.
Zhao Jiping
Born: 1945, Shulu, China.
Background: The leading composer of music for Chinese cinema, Zhao studied music composition at the Music Conservatory in Xian, and took up his first professional appointment there. During the 1970s, Zhao wrote music commissions for organisations throughout China and the Far East, but it was not until 1983, when he wrote the score for director Chen Kaige's "Yellow Earth", that he became known on the international film music scene. Since then, Zhao has become the most prominent and well-respected film music composer in China, and has enjoyed several internationally successful collaborations with directors such as Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou on films such as “Ju Dou” (1990), “Raise the Red Lantern” (1991), “Farewell My Concubine” (1993), “To Live” (1994) and “The Emperor and the Assassin” (1999). Although Zhao has never scored a film outside China, his music – which combines traditional Chinese sensibilities with the sweep of a Western orchestra - was brought to a wider audience with the 2000 release of a compilation of his scores, entitled "Electric Shadows".
Highlight Scores: Yellow Earth, Red Sorghum, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qiu Ju, Farewell My Concubine, To Live, Red Firecracker Green Firecracker, Temptress Moon, The Emperor’s Shadow, The King of Masks, Sunbird, The Emperor and the Assassin, Breaking the Silence.
Elton John
Born: 25 March 1947, Pinner, England.
Background: Internationally famous, massively successful, controversially flamboyant singer/songwriter and composer, whose real name is Reginald Dwight. Little needs to be said about his pop music career: he studied at the Royal Academy of Music having been awarded a scholarship at age 11, bur dropped out to pursue a career in rock and roll. He went on to top the charts with classic songs such as “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”, “Candle in the Wind”, “I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues”, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”, “The Last Song”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Rocket Man”, “I'm Still Standing”, “Saturday Night's Alright”, “Crocodile Rock”, “Don't Go Breakin' My Heart” and “Nikita”. His albums have sold millions of copies around the world, and he has won Grammies galore. His involvement in the world of film actually goes back to 1971, when he and his long-time lyricist partner Bernie Taupin contributed original songs to the soundtrack of the controversial love story “Friends”. He appeared in The Who’s 1975 rock-opera “Tommy”, playing the Pinball Wizard, and many of his songs featured in the soundtracks of popular movies. It was not until 1994, however, that John received any kind of official recognition for his work from a film-related body, when he won one and was nominated for two other Academy Awards for this work on the animated classic “The Lion King”. John actually wrote an original orchestral score for the 1999 Albert Brooks/Sharon Stone film “The Muse” – his only such effort to date – but he continues to be a major player on he international music scene. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to music and fund-raising for AIDS charities in 1998; he and his long-term homosexual partner David Furnish registered their civil partnership on 21 December 2005, the day gay marriages became legal England and Wales, thereby becoming one of the first gay men in Britain to legally married.
Highlight Scores: Friends, The Lion King, The Muse.
Awards: Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe for “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” from The Lion King; Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for “Hakuna Matata” and “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”, also from The Lion King. Golden Globe nomination for “The Heart Of Every Girl” from Mona Lisa Smile in 2003.
Links: Official Site.
Carl Johnson
Born: Kansas City, Missouri.
Background: Talented American composer with an corner on the animation market, which has kept him in continued employment scoring projects for Disney and Warner Brothers since 1993. Studied medicine at the University if Kansas, but a long-standing love of music made him switch courses, and eventually drove him to attend the film scoring programme in at the University of Southern California Los Angeles. He quickly found himself in demand and, seeing a niche market ready to be exploited, began writing music for dozens of animated series, including "Tazmania", "Bonkers", "Tiny Toon Adventures", "Batman" "Gargoyles" and "Pinky and the Brain". In recent years Johnson has carved out a lucrative career writing for a number of Disney animated straight-to-video sequels, notably “Aladdin and the King of Thieves” (1995), “The Hunchback of Notre Dame II” (2002) and the theatrically-released “Piglet's Big Movie” (2003). He has also carried out orchestration work, notably for James Horner, and recorded with orchestras as far afield as Japan and Bulgaria.
Highlight Scores: Gargoyles: The Movie, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Winnie the Pooh's Grand Adventure, Invasion America (TV), Piglet's Big Movie, June.
Links: Official Site
J.J. Johnson
Born: 22 January 1924, Indianapolis, Indiana. Died: 4 February 2001.
Background: Popular and successful African-American composer, one of the leading lights of the ‘blaxploitation’ film industry of the 1970s. Began his career as a pianist and jazz trombonist, and played with big bands led by Snookum Russell, Benny Carter and Count Basie, while moonlighting playing bebop in combos with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Illinois Jacquet. By the 1970s Johnson felt he needed a change of direction; he went off to Hollywood, and spent the next 17 years scoring films and television shows, assisting Isaac Hayes with his score to “Shaft” in 1971, and receiving acclaim for his work on “Across 110th Street” (1972), “Trouble Man” (1972), “Cleopatra Jones” (1973) and “Willie Dynamite” (1974) . To keep his trombone skills up, he played part time as a third trombone in the band for the Carol Burnett Show, but by the middle of the 1980s demand for services was drying up, and returned home to Indiana. He developed terminal prostate cancer in the late 1990s and, rather than go through years of agonizing treatment, he committed suicide on 4 February 2001, at the age of 77.
Highlight Scores: Shaft, Across 110th Street, Trouble Man, Cleopatra Jones, Willie Dynamite, The Bionic Boy, Lucan, Murder Me Murder You.
Laurie Johnson
Born: 7 February 1927, Hampstead, England.
Background: Prolific English composer with over 400 credits to his name, most famous for the dozens of familiar themes he wrote for British television in the 1960s and 70s. Studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and began his career as a jazz and big band arranger for orchestra leaders such as Ted Heath, Geraldo and Jack Parnell. His first major score came in 1959, for the J. Lee Thompson-directed crime drama “Tiger Bay”, before coming to international prominence in 1964 through his work on Stanley Kubrick’s classic cold war satire “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”. However, by far his most famous work is for the hugely successful TV series “The Avengers”, which ran from 1961 to 1969, and made stars of its female leads Diana Rigg and Honor Blackman. He went on to write music for the equally famous shows “The Professionals" and "New Avengers" in 1977 and 1976 respectively. Johnson is also a film and television producer (his company was responsible for both the aforementioned shows), stage composer (he wrote the award winning musicals "Lock up Your Daughters" and "The Four Musketeers" in London's West End) and bandleader, having led the London Big Band Orchestra since 1994.
Highlight Scores: Tiger Bay, The Avengers (TV), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, First Men in the Moon, Hot Millions, The Belstone Fox, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Diagnosis Murder, The New Avengers (TV), The Professionals (TV), It Lives Again, It’s Alive III.
Adrian Johnston
Born:
Background: Scottish-born composer who began his musical life as a member of the pop group The Waterboys, formed in 1983, and who had a smash hit single in Britain in 1998 entitled 'The Whole of the Moon' - ironically, just after Johnston had left! Began composing music for films in 1996, under the direction of Michael Winterbottom, and has since gone on to become one of the most respected and prolific young composers working in Britain, notching up an impressive list of credits in a very short time, including such titles as “Jude” (1996), “Welcome to Sarajevo” (1997), “The House of Mirth” (2000), the Emmy-winning “Shackleton” (2002), and the BAFTA-nominated “The Lost Prince” (2002) and “Tipping the Velvet” (2003).
Highlight Scores: Jude, Welcome to Sarajevo, Divorcing Jack, I Want You, Our Mutual Friend, The House of Mirth, About Adam, Perfect Strangers, Me Without You, The Lawless Heart, Shackleton, The Lost Prince, Tipping the Velvet, If Only, Kinky Boots
Awards: Emmy for Shackleton (2002). BAFTA nominations for Our Mutual Friend (1998), Perfect Strangers (2001), Tipping the Velvet (2002) and The Lost Prince (2003).
Dan Jones
Born: Manchester, England.
Background: Talented British composer who burst out of nowhere into the spotlight in 2000 with his critically-acclaimed score for the Oscar-nominated "Shadow of the Vampire". Studied music at Oxford University, where he was the recipient Ralph Vaughan Williams Electro-Acoustic Scholarship in 1995, which allowed him to undertake further studies at the Centro Richerche Musicali in Rome. Since his emergence, Jones has gone on to be a reliable addition to the roster of BBC drama composers, with a number of acclaimed projects to his name, and winning an Ivor Novello Award in 2004 for his score for "Max". He is also an active theatre and dance composer, and is closely involved with both the Sound and Fury Theatre Company and the Rambert Dance Company in London.
Highlight Scores: Shadow of the Vampire, Tomorrow La Scala!, Max, Strange, Jericho Mansions.
Quincy Jones
Born: 14 March 1933, Chicago, Illinois.
Background: Quincy Delightt Jones II is an American music impresario, media mogul and social activist who, during his 50 years in the entertainment industry Jones has been a film composer, musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, music director, bandleader, film producer, television producer, and author. Jones' work has earned him more than 70 Grammy Award nominations, more than 25 Grammy Awards, and a place in history for being the producer of two of the top-selling records of all time: Michael Jackson’s album Thriller, and the charity song “We Are the World”. A child prodigy, Jones won a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and began his career at age 17, playing trumpet and arranging for legendary bandleader Lionel Hampton; he would later go on to work with the likes of Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie and Peggy Lee. After undertaking further study with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen in Paris, Jones successfully toured throughout Europe with a number of jazz orchestras, before returning to the US in 1962 to become the musical director of the New York division of Mercury Records. During the next thirty years of his career, Jones would write hit song for some of the most important artists of the era, including Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, The Brothers Johnson and Dinah Washington. Director Sidney Lumet asked Jones to score his film “The Pawnbroker” (1964), initiating a film music career which has encompassed such scores as “Walk, Don't Run” (1966), “In Cold Blood” (1967), “In The Heat of the Night” (1967), “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice” (1969), “Cactus Flower” (1969), “The Getaway” (1972) and the TV shows “Ironside”, “Sanford and Son” and “The Cosby Show”. While working on the film “The Wiz” in 1978, Jones met Michael Jackson who asked him to produce his upcoming solo record. The result, ‘Off The Wall’ sold a staggering 20 million copies and made Jones the most powerful record producer in industry. Jones' and Jackson's next collaboration, ‘Thriller’, sold 51 million copies, and their third solo album ‘Bad’, sold 30 million. Jones received his fifth Oscar nomination for Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple” in 1985, and actually caused the music branch of the Academy to change their rules after he successfully lobbied to get his eleven orchestrators nominated along with him. He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy in 1995. As well as his music work, Jones is an internationally respected humanitarian. He supported the work of Martin Luther King in the 1960s, and went on to be one of the co-founders of the Institute for Black American Music (IBAM), whose events aim to raise enough funds for the creation of a national library of African-American art and music. Jones is also one of the founders of the Black Arts Festival in his hometown Chicago. For many years he has worked closely with Bono of U2 on a number of philanthropic issues, and is a patron of many charities, incuding the NAACP, GLAAD, Peace Games and AmFAR. Jones’ son Quincy Jones III is a well known music producer who participated in the creation of the Swedish hip hop scene in the early 1980s’ Jones Sr. and Jones Jr. recently co-scored the hit hip-hop movie “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” in 2005.
Highlight Scores: The Pawnbroker, Walk Don't Run, In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, Banning, For Love of Ivy, Mackenna's Gold, The Italian Job, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Cactus Flower, They Call Me Mister Tibbs, Honky, The Getaway, Roots, The Wiz, The Color Purple, Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
Awards: Eight time Oscar nominee: for "Banning" (1967), "In Cold Blood" (1967), "For Love of Ivy" (1969), "The Wiz" (1978), and four times for "The Color Purple" (1985). Winner of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995. Also three Golden Globe nominations, and four Emmy nominations.
Ron Jones
Born:
Background: American composer Best known for his work on the hit science fiction series "Star Trek: The Next Generation". After completing his studies at the Dick Grove School of Music, Jones began his composing career as a protégé of Lalo Schifrin, before going on to work as an assistant to Mike Post, Pete Carpenter, and animation composer Hoyt Curtin, with whom he worked throughout the 1970s. He scored hundreds of animated shows for Hanna-Barbera and Ruby Spears, including “The Flintstones”, “The Smurfs” and “Scooby-Doo”. He scored his first solo films – low budget sci-fi thrillers and action movies - in 1985, but did not come to public attention until 1987, when he began work on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 1987. Jones left the series in 1991, and spent much of the 1990s out of the limelight, but in recent years Jones has enjoyed a career resurgence through his association with cult animated series such as "Family Guy", “The Fairly OddParents” and “American Dad”. In addition to his composing work, Jones is also a dedicated educator/instructor of electronic scoring and orchestration, having founded the world’s first online university for electronic music scoring, Emotif University.
Highlight Scores: Naked Vengeance, Kidnapped, Future Hunters, Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV), Family Guy (TV), The Fairly OddParents (TV).
Awards: Emmy nomination for "Family Guy" (2000).
Links: Official Site
David Julyan
Born: Cheltenham, England.
Background: Promising English composer who specialises in dark scores with an electronic ambience. Studied music at University College in London, where he became friends with fellow student Christopher Nolan, who was studying film-making. After collaborating with Nolan on several short films, Julyan made his feature scoring debut in 1998 on Nolan’s independent drama "Following" (the budget for which was so low that Julyan, as well as everyone else involved, worked for free - the total music budget for the film was roughly $8), and shot to worldwide prominence when he scored Nolan’s sophomore effort, the Oscar-nominated hit “Memento” in 2000. Recently, Julyan has begun to branch out of his one-director relationship, and looks to have a promising future as one of England's rising film music stars: his recent works include the remake of the Norwegian thriller “Insomnia” (2002), the disability drama “Inside I’m Dancing” (2004) the superb horror flick “The Descent” (2005), and the critically-acclaimed magical drama “The Prestige” (2006). Trivia note: it was disappointing to note that he was NOT asked to score Nolan’s first major studio feature, the fifth Batman movie “Batman Begins”, eventually scored by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.
Highlight Scores: Following, Memento, Happy Here and Now, Insomnia, Spivs, Inside I’m Dancing, The Descent, The Prestige.
Links: Official Site
Bill Justis
Born: 14 October 1926, Birmingham, Alabama. Died: 15 July 1982.
Background: American composer William E. Justis Jr. was music director at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, before moving to Nashville in 1954 to become a composer, songwriter, bandleader and record producer. He worked as a session musician, A&R man, and producer while also releasing albums under his own name, and arranged and led the studio bands for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich. He had an instrumental hit, a saxophone jive entitled "Raunchy", that peaked at #2 on the Billboard music charts in 1957, and became one of Mercury Records’ key Nashville staff members, before turning his hand to film music in 1972. He scored the one and only hit of his career – the bootlegging action comedy “Smokey and the Bandit” – in 1977, and scored three more films in the late 1970s and early 80s, but sadly died in 1982 at the early age of 55.
Highlight Scores: Dear Dead Delilah, Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, The Villain, Island Claws.
Benoît Jutras
Born: 1966, Montreal, Canada.
Background: Talented, free-spirited French-Canadian composer whose most famous collaborations have been with the spellbinding modern circus troupe, Cirque du Soleil. Studied music at the Conservatoire de Montréal, and became involved with Cirque immediately after his graduation; he has since gone on to write music for eight Cirque projects, including Alegría, Quidam, O, Mystère, La Nouba, and the 2000 feature film “Journey of Man”, winning countless awards along the way. With the exception of the short-lived Canadian TV series "The Hunger" in 1996, Jutras only scored his first "proper" film in 2003, entitled "The Far Side of the Moon" for director Robert Lepage. Jutras has, however, written a great deal of concert and performance music, including a piece written commemorate the G7 summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1997, and an Italian stage musical about the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Jutras’s daughter, Audrey Brisson-Jutras, is a member of the Cirque du Soleil troupe, and performed the role of Zoe in "Quidam".
Highlight Scores: Alegría, Quidam, O, Mystère, La Nouba, Journey of Man, The Far Side of the Moon.
Links: Official Site
Gus Kahn
Born: 6 November 1886, Koblenz, Germany. Died: 8 October 1941.
Background: German-American musician, songwriter and lyricist Gustav Gerson Kahn has the honour of being the first composer ever to win an Oscar for music, for the film "One Night of Love" in 1934. Kahn and his family moved from Germany to Chicago, Illinois in 1890, and he began his musical career writing lyrics for vaudeville acts, graduating later to Broadway and Hollywood musicals. With his wife Grace LeBoy, Kahn wrote one of Al Jolson's first hits, "Everybody Rag With Me," in 1916, and his other famous songs include "It Had To Be You", "Makin' Whoopee!", "Everybody Rag With Me", “Ain't We Got Fun?", "Carolina in the Morning", "Toot Toot Tootsie", "I'll See You in My Dreams", "It Had to Be You", "Yes Sir, That's My Baby", "Side by Side", "Love Me or Leave Me", "Makin' Whoopee", "My Baby Just Cares for Me". Kahn’s songs have featured in numerous Hollywood movies over the years, including “Casablanca”, “Mutiny on the Bounty”, “Captains Courageous”, “Pride of the Yankees”, and the classic Marx Brothers movie “A Day at the Races”. He wrote original works for “One Night of Love”, “Flying Down to Rio” in 1933, and “Spring Parade” in 1940, picking up three Oscar nominations on the way. In addition to his film work, Kahn also wrote the Broadway musicals “Holka Polka” (1925), “Kitty's Kisses” (1926), “Whoopee!” (1928), and “Show Girl” (1929). He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in Beverly Hills in 1941, aged just 54. Interestingly Kahn’s daughter, Irene Kahn, married Arthur Marx, the son of Groucho Marx, in 1943 – two years after the composer’s death, and eight years after his music appeared in his daughter’s father-in-law’s film!
Highlight Scores: One Night of Love, Flying Down to Rio, Spring Parade.
Awards: Academy Award for "One Night of Love" (1934).
John Kander
Born: 18 March 1927, Kansas City, Missouri.
Background: Highly respected composer, who has worked predominantly (and more successfully) on Broadway than in Hollywood. Studied at Columbia University, and began his career as choral director and conductor at the Warwick Musical Theatre, which he augmented by playing piano in New York shows. By the end of the 1950s, Kander was working as a dance arranger and conductor for Broadway musicals, and it was during this time he met an aspiring lyricist by the name of Fred Ebb. Kander and Ebb has one of their songs recorded by a young singer named Barbra Streisand, and on the strength of that song's success, they wrote their first full musical, "Flora the Red Menace" in 1965. Their second musical, "Cabaret", was a runaway smash, and the rest - as they say - is history. Subsequent shows, such as "Happy Time", "Zorba", "Chicago", "The Act", "The Rink", "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "Steel Pier" were equally successful, while Kander's forays into the world of film were more often than not star vehicles for performers he had already worked with, such as Barbra Streisand (“Funny Girl”, “Funny Lady”) or Liza Minnelli (“Cabaret”), or big-screen versions of his stage shows (the multi-Oscar winning “Chicago”, for which he wrote new material and was nominated for an Oscar in 2002). Kander has been nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning on four occasions, in addition to his awards from the film industry. Sadly, Fred Ebb died of a heart-attack in 2004 at the age of 76, bringing their groundbreaking partnership to a premature end.
Highlight Scores: Something For Everyone, Cabaret, Funny Lady, New York New York, Kramer vs. Kramer, Still of the Night, Places in the Heart, An Early Frost, Breathing Lessons, Chicago.
Awards: Oscar nominations for "Funny Lady" (1975) and "Chicago" (2002). Golden Globe nominations for "Cabaret" (1972) and "Funny Lady". BAFTA nomination for "Chicago". Four Emmy nominations.
Yôko Kanno
Born: 19 March 1964, Miyagi, Japan.
Background: Extremely popular Japanese composer, one of the few women to achieve international success in a male-dominated environment. She originally began as a keyboardist for the popular Japanese group Tetsu 100%, but was soon lured away to undertake work for a variety of television shows, building a solid reputation for herself throughout the late 1980s. In 1994, Kanno was hired by legendary Anime director Shinichiro Watanabe to score his animated adventure series "Macross Plus", and Kanno's journey to becoming the queen of Anime music began - she has since gone on to score several wildly popular projects, including “Escaflowne”, “Cowboy Bebop” and “Gundam”, and has recently begun to branch out into the world of Anime-inspired video games and television. Her cult status amongst Anime and Japanese Game fans is enormous, and she regularly attends packed conventions around the world.
Highlight Scores: Macross Plus, Memories, Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Turn-a-Gundam, Wolf's Rain.
Links: The Yoko Kanno Project by James Wong
Tuomas Kantelinen
Born: 22 September 1969, Finland.
Background: The leading composer of film music from Finland, Kantelinen studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and graduated amongst accolades which heralded him as one of the best young composers of his generation, and a natural successor to the likes of Einojuhani Rautavaara and Sibelius himself. Always intent on a career that combined cinema with the concert hall, Kantelinen began composing music for student films in 1992, and made his feature film debut three years later working with acclaimed director Jari Halonen. In addition to his film work, Kantelinen composed a number of concert and performance works, notably a popular and successful opera entitled "Paavo Suuri - Suuri Juoksu, Suuri Uni", based on the life of the great Finnish long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi, and which premiered at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium in summer 2000. His other works include three symphonies, several chamber pieces, a guitar concerto and a piano concerto. He has received two Jussi Awards for his work on the films "Lunastus" (1997) and "Rukajärven Tie" (1999), the Finnish equivalent of an Oscar.
Highlight Scores: Lipton Cockton, Lunastus, Rukajärven Tie, Bad Luck Love, Minä Ja Morrison, Aleksis Kiven Elämä, Pahat Pojat, Mosku: Lajinsa Viimeinen, Mindhunters, Mother of Mine, Lupaus.
Links: Official Site
Bronislau Kaper
Born: 5 February 1902, Warsaw, Poland. Died: 26 April 1983.
Background: Critically acclaimed Polish composer who enjoyed great success in the 1940s and 50s. Studied at the Chopin Music School and began his career composing for films in Germany in 1930, but left for France in response to Hitler's rise to power, before coming to the USA in 1935 at the behest of MGM's Louis B. Mayer, who had heard and enjoyed some of his popular songs. During his 30-year career with MGM in Hollywood, Kaper wrote music for over 100 films both as a songwriter and composer, including “Gaslight” (1944), “Lili” (1953), “The Naked Spur” (1953), “Them!” (1954), “The Swan” (1956), “Auntie Mame” (1958), “The Brothers Karamazov” (1958), “Butterfield 8” (1960), and “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1962), as well as several classic Marx Brothers comedies, picking up four Oscar nominations along the way. As the established studio system declined at the end of the 1950s, Kaper found projects more difficult to come by, and was dabbling in episodic television by the time he retired in 1968. He died of cancer at his home in Los Angeles in 1983, aged 80. Trivia note: he occasionally composed under the pseudonym Edward Kane.
Highlight Scores: A Day at the Races, A Night at the Opera, The Chocolate Soldier, A Life of Her Own, Gaslight, The Stranger, Green Dolphin Street, Lili, The Naked Spur, Them!, The Swan, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Brothers Karamazov, Auntie Mame, Home from the Hill, Butterfield 8, Mutiny on the Bounty, Tobruk.
Awards: Academy Award for "Lili" (1953), nominations for "The Chocolate Soldier" (1941) and "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1962). Golden Globe nomination for "A Life of Her Own" (1950).
Sol Kaplan
Born: 19 April 1919, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Died: 14 November 1990.
Background: Prolific American film and TV music composer, best known today for his work on the “Star Trek” TV series in the 1960s. Studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and began his career as successful a concert pianist, giving performances across the United States in the 1930s, including at Carnegie Hall. Kaplan began working for MGM in the early 1940s, and scored his first film, “The Tell-Tale Heart” in 1941 for director Jules Dassin, albeit using the name Sol Krandel. Kaplan went on to write music for dozens of films in the 1940s and early 1950s, including “Tales of Manhattan” (1942), “Halls of Montezuma” (1950), “Titanic” (1953), “Niagara” (1953) and “Salt of the Earth” (1954), until his film career was disrupted when he was blacklisted after appearing before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Kaplan made a successful return to Hollywood in 1963 when he scored the classic Carl Foreman war movie “The Victors”; his association with Star Trek began in 1966, when he scored the classic episode “The Doomsday Machine”. Kaplan scored his last film in 1979, and retired; he died of lung cancer n November 1990, at the age of 71. Kaplan’s son Jonathan is a major Hollywood director, having helmed “The Accused” (1988), “Unlawful Entry” (1992) and “Brokedown Palace” (1999).
Highlight Scores: The Tell-Tale Heart, Tales of Manhattan, Alice in Wonderland, Halls of Montezuma, Rawhide, Titanic, Niagara, Salt of the Earth, The Victors, Star Trek (TV), The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Over the Edge.
Dana Kaproff
Born:
Background: Prolific film and television composer of the 1970s and 80s, with almost 100 credits to his name. Began his career wiring episodic underscore for TV shows such as “Hawaii Five-0”, “The Bionic Woman” and “Delvecchio”, before graduating on to features such as “Empire of the Ants” (1977), “When a Stranger Calls” (1979) and Samuel Fuller’s classic war movie “The Big Red One” (1980). However, Kaproff’s career never took off in the direction it was expected, and he has spent the majority of the last 20 years splitting his time between movies-of-the-week such as “When a Stranger Calls Back” (1993), “Stolen Women, Captured Hearts” (1997), “On the Edge of Innocence” (1997) and “What We Did That Night” (1999), with TV scoring for shows such as “Falcon Crest”, “Cagney & Lacey” and “Starman”. As a songwriter, Kaproff wrote half of the new material on Shirley Bassey’s 2003 album “Thank You For The Years”, including the songs ‘Mi Amor’, ‘Can I Turn It All Around’ and ‘Please Don't Say Goodbye’. Interestingly, he had half a million children simultaneously performing his song "For A Better Tomorrow" for a major UK/Guinness World Book event. Kaproff serves on the Executive Board of The Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Music Branch. For some reason, in recent years, Kaproff has been writing under the assumed name ‘D.K. Blu’ – his last project was for Mark L. Lester’s 1999 low-budget action thriller “White Rush”. He is the owner and operator of audioRiot, a Los Angeles based production company which provides recording, mixing and mastering services to the music industry.
Highlight Scores: Empire of the Ants, The Late Great Planet Earth, When a Stranger Calls, The Big Red One, Pandemonium, The Golden Seal, When a Stranger Calls Back, Stolen Women Captured Hearts.
Links: audioRiot.
Anton Karas
Born: 7 July 1906, Vienna, Austria. Died: 9 January 1985.
Background: Austrian composer and musician, who studied at Musikschule Horack, and was a virtuoso zither player who plied his trade in and around the wine bars of Vienna, until he was "discovered" by film producer Carol Reed, and hired to score his thriller The Third Man. Became enormously popular as a result of that score, but never worked as a film composer again, spending his remaining years writing zither tunes, performing on other people's albums, manufacturing zithers, and teaching others to play the instrument. He died in 1985, aged 79.
Highlight Scores: The Third Man.
Links: Tribute at Zitherists Website.
Fred Karlin
Born: 16 June 1936, Chicago, Illinois. Died: 26 March 2004.
Background: Popular and acclaimed composer and songwriter of the 1970s. Studied at music Amherst College, and began his career in New York in the 1950s as a jazz arranger for artists such as Benny Goodman, Harry James, Bill Russo, and the Meg Welles Quintet. During this time, Karlin also began writing original music for commercials and documentaries, initiating a love of writing music for film. He made his film music debut in 1967, with Alan J. Pakula's "Up the Down Staircase", and received four Oscar nominations in the early 1970s, winning the Award in 1971. Karlin spent most of the next 30 years writing music for TV movies and syndicated serials, peppering his filmography with occasional cinematic hits such as "Westworld" (1973), and retired from composing altogether in 1997, having written music for almost 200 projects, to dedicate himself to his other love - music education and teaching. While still an active composer, Karlin wrote "On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring", considered by many to be the definitive textbook on the subject of film scoring, and was instrumental in the creation of the Media and Jazz programs at the Eastman School of Music, the music education courses at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the scholarship program run through the American Society of Composers. Died of cancer aged 67.
Highlight Scores: Up the Down Staircase, Yours Mine and Ours, The Sterile Cuckoo, The Baby Maker, Lovers and Other Strangers, The Little Ark, Westworld, Bad Ronald, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Futureworld, Minstrel Man, The Awakening Land, Paris (TV), Homeward Bound, Survive the Savage Sea.
Awards: Academy Award for "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1970), nominations for "The Sterile Cuckoo" (1969), "The Baby Maker" (1970) and "The Little Ark" (1972). Seven Emmy nominations between 1977-1992.
Links: GR8 Music: Official Site
Laura Karpman
Born:
Background: One of a small number of American female composers to break through the glass ceiling of film music in Hollywood. Began writing music at the age of seven, undertook studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and received a doctorate from Juilliard. After spending ten years as a jobbing composer in New York, Karpman moved to Los Angeles, attended the Sundance Scoring Workshop with David Raksin, and immediately set about establishing herself in Hollywood. She quickly become an established composer of movies-of-the-week and small-scale features, and eventually graduated into the big leagues through her work on Steven Spielberg's smash sci-fi series "Taken". Her recent work included a TV remake of Stephen King’s classic horror story “Carrie”, the sequel to the kid’s baseball movie “The Sandlot 2”, and the music for the popular PC game “EverQuest II”. In addition to her film work, Karpman has written extensively for the concert hall and theatre, having penned works for The Debussy Trio, electric violist Martha Mooke, and virtuoso bassonist Lumír Vanek. She has written an opera, "Escape", and incidental music for the Georgia Shakespeare Festival and the Los Angeles' Classical Theatre Company.
Highlight Scores: Doing Time on Maple Drive, Break Up, Dash and Lily, Frankie and Hazel, Run the Wild Fields, Surviving Gilligan's Island, The Princess and the Marine, Odyssey 5 (TV), Carrie, Steven Spielberg's Taken (TV), The Sandlot 2.
Awards: Emmy nomination for "Odyssey 5" (2002).
Links: Official Site
Al Kasha
Born: Brooklyn, New York.
Background: Academy Award-winning composer and songwriter who spent much of his professional career working with Joel Hirschhorn. Began writing music at the age of sixteen, and after a few years of struggling, had some of his songs recorded by the likes of Jackie Wilson and Bobby Darin. Eventually, Kasha became a record producer, working with artists ranging from Steve Lawrence to Aretha Franklin, until meeting Joel Hirschhorn in 1966. Kasha spent much of the next five years writing with Hirschhorn, and together the pair had their work performed by prominent artists such as Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. Kasha worked on his first film in 1970, “The Cheyenne Social Club”, which was directed by Gene Kelly, but it was the pair’s next effort – “The Poseidon Adventure” - that really made their name. The song ‘The Morning After’ won Hirschhorn and Kasha their first Oscar and also topped the Billboard chart. “The Towering Inferno” (1974) provided Hirschhorn and Kasha with their second Oscar, this time for the song ‘We May Never Love Like This Again’. Following this success the pair received two further Oscar nominations, both for their work on “Pete's Dragon” (1977), and Hirschhorn and Kasha continued to work together until the late 1990s, their final collaboration being “Rescue Me” in 1998. The pair also worked together on a number of Broadway musicals, receiving Tony Award nominations for both “Copperfield” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”.
Highlight Scores: The Cheyenne Social Club, The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Freaky Friday, Pete’s Dragon, Hot Lead and Cold Feet, The North Avenue Irregulars, China Cry.
Awards: Academy Awards for The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno.
Links: Official Site
Kenji Kawai
Born: 23 April 1957, Shinagawa, Japan.
Background: A Japanese composer with an international reputation, Kawai is most famous for his dark, moody, electronic scores for Anime films and the horror movies of Hideo Nakata. Studied at Tokai University, and at the Shobi Music Academy in Tokyo, before forming the popular Japanese rock group Muse in the late 1970s. After a period of success in the early 80s, when they released several acclaimed albums, Muse disbanded, and Kawai began writing music for advertising, and later for television. He was offered his first film assignment, “The Red Spectacles”, in 1987, and reached an international audience for the first time two years later, with the cult success of the "Patlabor". Since then he has since gone on to enjoy a healthy career, despite never having scored a film outside of Japan, with titles such as Mamoru Oshii’s Manga classic “Ghost in the Shell” (1995) and its 2004 sequel, the massively popular horror flicks “Ringu” (1998) and “Dark Water” (2002), and the Polish/Japanese sci-fi action “Avalon” (2001).
Highlight Scores: Patlabor, Patlabor 2, Ghost in the Shell, Ring, Ring 2, Avalon, The Princess Blade, Dark Water, Chaos, Samurais, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Seven Swords.
Links: Official Site
Edward J. Kay
Born: 27 November 1898, New York, New York. Died: 22 December 1973.
Background: Hugely prolific composer and music director from Hollywood’s Golden Age, who worked on over 300 films in a 30-year career near the top. Came to Hollywood in 1936, and was hired to be the head of the music department at Monogram Pictures, a B-movie studio which specialized in lurid monster movies and pulp detective stories. Between 1936 and 1958 Kay supervised the music on films such as the Boris Karloff vehicle “The Ape” (1940), the East Side Kids movies “’Neath Brooklyn Bridge” (1942) and “Ghosts on the Loose” (1943), the Charlie Chan mystery “The Jade Mask” (1945) and “Dangerous Money” (1946). He also managed to find time to write music of his own, picking up Oscar nominations for “King of the Zombies” in 1941, “Klondike Fury” in 1942, “Lady Let’s Dance” in 1944, and a double nomination in 1946 for “Sunbonnet Sue” and “G.I. Honeymoon”. Kay had moved into actual film production by the 1960s, and was involved in two low-budget TV movies (“The Creation of the Humanoids” and “The Market”), but failing healthy caused him to retire in 1966. He died in December 1973, aged 75.
Highlight Scores: Mr. Wong: Detective, The Ape, King of the Zombies, Klondike Fury, Lady Let’s Dance, The Jade Mask, Sunbonnet Sue, Dark Alibi, G.I. Honeymoon.
Awards: Oscar nominations for King of the Zombies (1941), Klondike Fury (1942), Lady Let’s Dance (1944), Sunbonnet Sue (1946), G.I. Honeymoon (1946).
John Keane
Born:
Background: Young English composer who looks to be one of British TV's rising stars. Studied music at the Guildhall School in London, and took Trevor Jones's film music course at the National Film and Television School, which led to him eventually scoring his first film, "The Kitchen Toto", for which he received the British Film Institute's Young Composer of the Year Award in 1987. He was nominated for a BAFTA TV Awards in 1988 for his work on the acclaimed TV movie “A Very British Coup”, and finally came to prominence in 1993, through his work on the cult TV series "Armisted Maupin's Tales of the City" and the legal drama "Kavanagh QC". Since then, Keane has received further critical acclaim for scoring six TV movies based on the escapades of T.R. Bowen's character Horatio Hornblower, and looks to have a solid career ahead of him. Sometimes he uses an “E” in his name to distinguish himself from the American composer, John M. Keane, who scores the hit TV show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”.
Highlight Scores: Armisted Maupin's Tales of the City (TV), Kavanagh QC (TV), Small Faces, Hornblower (TV), Hideous Kinky, Wives and Daughters (TV), The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, Anna Karenina (TV), Gunpowder Treason & Plot.
Awards: BAFTA nominations for “A Very British Coup” (1988) and "Hornblower" (1998).
Roger Kellaway
Born: 1 November 1939, Waban, Massachusetts.
Background: American composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist, and jazz musician, best known in film music circles as the composer of the closing theme from the classic sitcom "All in the Family". Studied piano as a child, attended Newton High School (at that time ranked the number 3 high school in the United States), studying college level music theory, and playing double bass and percussion in the school orchestra, performing works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach. From high school, he went on to the New England Conservatory where he studied piano, double bass, and composition. After two years at the conservatory he left to go on the road, playing bass and piano, eventually going on to freelance in jazz clubs, working with singers such as Lena Horne. Kellaway moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, where he became musical director for Bobby Darin. He arranged and conducted Darin's album of songs from the film "Dr. Doolittle", and wrote songs for a number of artists, ranging from Carmen McRae album to K. Lawrence Dunham and Amanda McBroom. Kellaway scored his first film, the TV movie “Children of the Lotus Eater” in 1970, and went on to score such successful and popular films as “The Mouse and His Child” (1977), “The Dark” (1979), “Silent Scream” (1980), “Running Scared” (1980) and “Evilspeak” (1981). He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1976 for his work adapting the song score on the classic Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson musical romance “A Star Is Born”. In addition to his film work, Kellaway has also conducted scores for a number of Broadway plays, and has had his music performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, The Budapest Studio Orchestra, The London Symphony and The National Philharmonic Orchestra of London. In 1999 he was commissioned to compose the music for the London West End production of “Lenny”; in 2000 he was commissioned by the West German Radio to write a two hour show celebrating the 100th birthday of composer Kurt Weill. As well as arranging the show, he also performed as pianist and conductor. Later that year he began working as Musical Director with Kevin Spacey on the pre-production for his film, “Beyond the Sea”, dedicated to Bobby Darin; he served as conductor and pianist for the 2004 13-city Beyond The Sea tour. In 2005, Kellaway conducted the world premiere of Sir Paul McCartney’s “Nova” in Buenos Aires with The Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He resides in Ojai, California, with his wife Jorjana.
Highlight Scores: All in the Family (TV), A Star Is Born, The Mouse and His Child, The Dark, Silent Scream, Running Scared, Evilspeak.
Awards: Oscar nomination for “A Star is Born” (1976).
Links: Official Site
Arthur Kempel
Born: 1945, Florida. Died: 3 March 2004.
Background: American composer and orchestrator, one of the most prominent ‘backroom boys’ who worked solidly in the Hollywood studio system, both as a composer for film and TV, and as an orchestrator for major composers. Among his major credits were the 1981 teen slasher movie “Graduation Day”, the 1991 Jean-Claude Van Damme flick “Double Impact”, the 1996 Charlie Sheen alien invasion movie “The Arrival”, and the acclaimed TV western “Riders of the Purple Sage”. He also wrote episodic underscore in the 1980s for shows such as “Falcon Crest”, “Remington Steele” and “The Father Dowling Mysteries”, and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) for “Fire in the Dark” in 1991. Sadly, Kempel died of stomach cancer in 2004 at his home in Sunland, California, aged just 59.
Highlight Scores: Graduation Day, Double Impact, Fire in the Dark, Sensation, The Arrival, Riders of the Purple Sage, Behind Enemy Lines, Tactical Assault.
Awards: Emmy nomination for “Fire in the Dark” (1991).
Jerome Kern
Born: 27 January 1885, New York, New York. Died: 11 November 1945.
Background: One of the great Hollywood songwriters, often called "the grand-daddy of American musical theatre". He began his stage career grafting American songs (for which he wrote the music) into imported European operettas. His breakthrough came in 1914 with the song "They Didn't Believe Me", written for a show called "The Girl from Utah", which established him as a major American composer. Married to a Englishwoman, Kern became an Anglophile, and teamed up with British writers Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse to write the so-called "Princess Theatre musicals" -shows like "Very Good, Eddie", "Sally", "Sunny", and "Leave It To Jane", which were unusual not so much for their silly storylines, but for the fact that the characters were everyday people rather than the exotic characters of operetta. Looking for an entirely different type of musical, Kern decided to adapt Edna Ferber's novel "Show Boat" for the musical stage. Although the legendary Oscar Hammerstein II agreed to do the adaptation and lyrics, nearly everyone (including Ferber) thought Kern and Hammerstein had lost their minds - Show Boat's storyline featured interracial marriages, wife desertion, alcoholism and gambling, not to mention the fact that the opening chorus, "Ol' Man River", was sung by black dockworkers singing about their work. In spite of all this, "Show Boat" became a huge hit and has remained one of the musical theaters's greatest classics and most often-revived shows. After a heart attack in 1939, Kern went to Hollywood, where he wrote songs exclusively for movie musicals. Kern wrote original songs for over 30 films, notably “Roberta” (1935), “Swing Time” (1936), “Lady Be Good” (1941), “You Were Never Lovelier” (1942), “Cover Girl (1944)”, and the Hollywood production of “Show Boat” starring Irene Dunne and Paul Robeson , but sadly died of a stroke in 1945, aged 60. Among his classic hits are titles such as 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes', 'The Way You Look Tonight', and 'The Last Time I Saw Paris'. In addition to Hammerstein, his regular lyric-writing partners included Dorothy Fields, Jimmy Mcugh, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and E.Y. Harburg.
Highlight Scores: Show Boat, Roberta, Swing Time, The Grea6 Ziegfeld, Lady Be Good, You Were Never Lovelier, Cover Girl, Till the Clouds Roll By, Can't Help Singing, Centennial Summer.
Awards: Academy Awards for "Swing Time" (1936) and "Lady Be Good" (1941), six further nominations between 1935-1946.
Aram Khachaturian
Born: 6 June 1903, Tbilisi, Georgia. Died: 1 May 1978.
Background: Internationally revered Russian composer, of Georgian/Armenian extraction, who is generally regarded to have been one of the leading classical composers of the 20th Century. Studied at Gnesin Musical College and the Moscow Conservatoire, and finished his first symphony in 1934. Thereafter, Khachaturian enjoyed a revered position in Russian cultural life, as a teacher, writer, and composer of music for theatre, film, and the concert hall. In addition to his numerous symphonies and concertos, his most famous classical pieces are his ballets "Spartacus" and "Gayaneh", the latter of which gave birth to the familiar whirligig 'Saber Dance', as well as the haunting lament of the 'Adagio'. Surprisingly, Khachaturian also wrote quite a lot of music for Russian cinema in the 1940s and 50s, including efforts by acclaimed directors such as Sergei Yutkevich, Vladimir Petrov and Mikhail Romm. However, his music did not reach a wider film and television audience until it was used by director Stanley Kubrick in "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), and as the theme to the popular British TV series "The Onedin Line" in 1971. He died in 1978, aged 74.
Highlight Scores: Pepo, Undying Flame, Secret Mission, Prisoner 217, The Battle of Stalingrad, Admiral Ushakov, Othello, Jovita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Onedin Line (TV).
Kevin Kiner
Born:
Background: Jobbing American composer whose career has been spent scoring mainly low-budget features and TV adventure and sci-fi series. First came to prominence as the music director for comedian Jerry Seinfeld (in his pre-TV stardom days), and made his composing debut on the cult TV show "Superboy" in 1988. Since then he has been in constant, if unspectacular, employment, contributing episodic underscore to dozens of TV series, notably “Walker” Texas Ranger”, “Stargate SG-1” and “CSI: Miami” peppered with an occasional feature such as the cult 1993 horror classic “Leprechaun”, the 1997 John Leguizamo comedy “The Pest”, the 1999 sci-fi action movie “Wing Commander” and the recent sports drama “Madison”.
Highlight Scores: Leprechaun, Freaked, Walker: Texas Ranger (TV), Black Scorpion, The Pest, Safe House, Stargate SG-1 (TV), The Visitor (TV), Wing Commander, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, The Legend of Johnny Lingo, Madison.
Kitaro
Born: 4 February 1953, Toyohasi, Japan.
Background: Japanese composer (real name Masanori Takahashi) and world-renowned world music and 'new age' artist, whose occasional forays into film music have yielded spectacular results. Born into a deeply religious family in rural Japan, Kitaro bucked convention when he discovered the electric guitar at school. As a self-taught performer, he also learned to play the keyboards, and was soon in demand as a multi-instrumentalist in the world of Japanese rock and pop. During his time with the band Albatross, found he could manipulate his instrument to emulate the sounds of nature; embarking on a solo career, his organic/electronic combination of sounds brought him many fans in Japan, until his music was brought to an international audience in 1980 through his music for the documentary series "Silk Road". Since then, Kitaro has been one of the leading figures of new age music, releasing nine best-selling albums, including "Tenku", "The Light of the Spirit", "Dream" and the Grammy-winning "Thinking of You", and performing sell-out concerts across the world. Kitaro scored his first film, the Anime adventure “Queen Millennia” in 1982, and reached a wider international audience in 1991 through his work on the epic Chinese crime saga “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai”. However, his greatest Hollywood success came in 1993 when, working with composer Randy Miller, he won the Golden Globe for Best Original score for his work on Oliver Stone’s Vietnam-set romantic drama “Heaven & Earth”. Since that success, Kitaro has worked on just one other film – the 1997 drama “The Soong Sisters”, again in collaboration with Randy Miller – but continues to enjoy enormous success as a top-selling new age artist and performer.
Highlight Scores: Queen Millennia, Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, Heaven & Earth, The Soong Sisters.
Awards: Golden Globe for "Heaven & Earth" (1993).
Links: Official Site
David Kitay
Born: 23 October 1961, Los Angeles, California.
Background: Talented American composer, sadly typecast in the “stupid comedy” genre, much like his contemporary, Robert Folk. A guitar and keyboard player, he first came to prominence in 1989 with a big-screen/small-screen double header, cracking the box office his score for the smash hit comedy "Look Who's Talking", while writing music for the multi-Award-winning comedy series "Mad About You", starring Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser. Since then Kitay gone on to score several million-dollar grossing movies, notably “Clueless” (1995), “Scary Movie” (2000), “Dude, Where’s My Car?” (2000), “Ghost World” (2001), “Bad Santa” (2003) and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” (2001), but has never really scored anything with any significant dramatic critical acclaim, and seems destined to be stuck in the rut forever. When not attempting to add pathos to films which don’t deserve his talents, Kitay has a profitable sideline as a producer/songwriter, having undertaken successful collaborations with artists such as Susannah Hoffs of the Bangles.
Highlight Scores: Look Who's Talking, Mad About You (TV), Look Who’s Talking Too, Surf Ninjas, Jury Duty, Clueless, A Night at the Roxbury, Can't Hardly Wait, Loser, Scary Movie, Dude Where's My Car?, Tomcats, Ghost World, How to Deal, Bad Santa, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, The Ice Harvest.
Johnny Klimek
Born: 1962, Melbourne, Australia.
Background: Australian born composer and producer who, in collaboration with fellow composer Reinhold Heil, and under the monicker Pale-3, has contributed music to a number of successful films since making his bow in the late 1990s. Moved from Australia to Berlin in 1983 with his brother Alf and twin sister Jayney, who together formed the techno band The Other Ones. Despite having no formal musical training, the German chart success of The Other Ones led to Klimek being asked to collaborate with and remix for dance and techno artists such as Paul Van Dyk, Nina Hagen and Dr Motte, with whom he achieved a great deal of commercial exposure and acclaim. He first teamed up with the Tykwer and Heil in 1997 for the film “Winterschläfer”, but it was their follow-up film, the massively successful “Run Lola Run”, which cemented their reputation. Since then, Klimek has scored a number of high profile films – all of them in collaboration with Heil, notably “Der Krieger Und Die Kaiserin” (2000), “One Hour Photo” (2002), “Land of the Dead” (2005), “The Cave” (2005) and “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2006).
Highlight Scores: Run Lola Run, Der Krieger Und Die Kaiserin, One Hour Photo, Without a Trace (TV), Iron Jawed Angels, Land of the Dead, The Cave, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
Harald Kloser
Born: 9 July 1956, Hard Vorarlberg, Austria.
Background: Talented Austrian composer whose stop-start career has meant that he has never truly made a breakthrough into the big leagues, despite being attached to several major motion pictures. Studied in Vienna, and began his film music career in the early 1980s, working on numerous German and Austrian TV series, TV movies and small-scale features. Made several abortive attempts at cracking the Hollywood system during the early 1990s, finally scoring his first major international feature, "The Thirteenth Floor" in 1999, thanks in no small part to the fact that the film’s German producer, Roland Emmerich, was a close friend. Has since gone on to score two major blockbusters in 2004, Emmerich’s big budget disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow” and the cross-franchise sci-fi horro “Alien vs. Predator”, and looks set to continue to be in amongst the major assignments for years to come. Kloser is married to the popular Luxembourg-born actress and TV host Désirée Nosbusch. He often co-composes his works with fellow Austrian composer, Thomas Wanker.
Highlight Scores: The Harmonists, The Thirteenth Floor, Nichts als die Wahrheit, Marlene, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Sins of the Father, RFK, Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story, The Day After Tomorrow, Alien vs Predator.
Jürgen Knieper
Born: 15 March 1941, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Background: Popular and well-respected German composer, best known for his collaborations with director Wim Wenders. Studied at the Musikhochschule in his home town of Karlsruhe, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, and began his career as a concert pianist, writing music for German theatre productions on the side. He made his film music debut in the early 1970s, on Wenders's acclaimed existential film "Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter" ("The Goalkeeper's Fear of the Penalty"), and has since gone on to write music for over 100 film and television productions, the vast majority of them in Germany, but which include international titles such as "River's Edge" (1986), and popular successes such as "Wings of Desire" (1987). Knieper has also written music for a number of popular German TV shows, notably "Lindenstrasse", "Praxis Bülowbogen" and "Tatort: Kinderspiele", and for many years has been the musical director for the show "Scheibenwischer" with Dieter Hildebrandt. In addition to his film music work, Knieper is also the founder member of the international jazz band State of Things, who have released several acclaimed CDs since their debut in 1997.
Highlight Scores: Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, Falsche Bewegung, Der Amerikanische Freund, Cristiane F., Der Stand der Dinge, Lisbon Story, River's Edge, Wings of Desire, Après la Guerre, Das Leben ist eine Baustelle, Tuvalu.
Mark Knopfler
Born: 12 August 1949, Glasgow, Scotland.
Background: Scottish singer/songwriter, composer and guitarist, known for his trademark headband, who came to fame in the 1980s as the front man of the classic rock group Dire Straits. Formed the band in 1977 while a jobbing musician in Glasgow, and finally hit the big time in 1985 following the release of the smash hit album 'Brothers In Arms', which featured the popular singles "Walk of Life" and "Money for Nothing". Knopfler was already writing music for films when Dire Straits were in their heyday, having made his debut in 1983 for Bill Forsyth's Scottish-set comedy-drama "Local Hero". His themes for "Local Hero" and the 1984 film "Cal", both of which feature Knopfler’s powerful, sympathetic guitar playing, have gone on to be British classics; he has since gone on to work with acclaimed directors such as Rob Reiner and Barry Levinson on films such as “The Princess Bride” (1987), “Last Exit to Brooklyn” (1989) and “Wag the Dog” (1997), while continuing to perform to sell-out crowds and release multi-Awards winning albums with the Straits. He is married to actress Kitty Aldridge, and has four children. He was named an Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in her 1999 New Year's Eve honours list, for services to the music industry.
Highlight Scores: Local Hero, Cal, Comfort and Joy, The Princess Bride, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Wag the Dog, Metroland, A Shot at Glory.
Awards: BAFTA nomination for "Local Hero" (1983). Grammy nomination for "The Princess Bride" (1987).
Links: Official Site
Krzysztof Komeda
Born: 27 April 1931, Poznan, Poland. Died: 23 April 1969.
Background: Talented Polish composer (real name was Krzysztof Trzcinski-Komeda), who wrote complicated, intelligent and orchestral music and groundbreaking jazz, and who was director Roman Polanski's favoured collaborator during the early years of his film-making career. Komeda, who often Anglicized his first name to ‘Christopher’ when working on English language films, studied at music at the Poznan Conservatory, but the onset of World War II changed his plans, and instead he embarked on a career in medicine, working as a doctor in a hospital, and playing and writing music in his spare time. He first began collaborating with Polanski, who was a fan of his work, in the early 1960s, on such classic films as “Knife in the Water” (1962) and “Cul-de-Sac” (1966), before wowing the Hollywood crowd with his scores for “The Fearless Vampire Killers” in 1967, and especially the bone-chilling, Oscar-winning 1968 horror movie “Rosemary's Baby”. Komeda looked to have a successful Hollywood career ahead of him, and was already signed to score several major studio productions, when he was tragically killed, dying four days before his 38th birthday as a result of head injuries he sustained in an car accident in Los Angeles four months earlier.
Highlight Scores: Two Men and a Wardrobe, The Fat and the Lean, Knife in the Water, Mammals, The Beautiful Swindlers, Cul-de-Sac, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Rosemary's Baby, Riot.
Links: Tribute Site by Krzysztof Balkiewicz and Wojciech Lubczynski.
Awards: Golden Globe nomination for "Rosemary's Baby" (1969).
Mark Korven
Born:
Background: Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canadian composer Mark Korven began formal music education in Edmonton in 1977 where he studied jazz arranging and composition. Success as a singer/songwriter led to a 1987 move to Toronto, where he released the hit album ‘This Must Be The Place” with Duke Street Records, and wrote the music score for "I've Heard the Mermaid's Singing", directed by Patricia Rozema. Since then, Korven has been nominated for nine Genie Awards (Canadian Oscars), winning in 1996 for “Curtis’s Charm”, and eight Gemini Awards (Canadian Emmys), as well as winning the Hot Docs award for documentary film music for "Hearts of Hate" in 1995 and "The Toughest Job in the World" in 2000. Arguably his most famous work to date is for the cult 1998 sci-fi drama “Cube”, which became a hot video property after its international release.
Highlight Scores: I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, White Room, The Grocer’s Wife, Henry & Verlin, The Michelle Apts., Curtis’s Charm, Cube, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire.
Links: Official Site
Irwin Kostal
Born: 1 October 1911, Chicago, Illinois. Died: 23 November 1994.
Background: Successful composer and music director who worked for both 20th Century Fox and Disney, and spearheaded some of the most popular screen musicals of the 1960s and 70s. He passed on college, saying "I found out early what I wanted to do wasn't being taught in most schools," and he subsequently learned musical arranging at his local library, where he studied the symphonic scores of composers such as Beethoven and Debussy. After landing his first professional gig as a staff arranger for "Design for Listening," a Chicago-based NBC radio show, he moved to New York where he was tapped to arrange for Sid Caesar's television series "Your Show of Shows" (1950) and went on to conduct for "The Gary Moore Show" (1958), before coming to prominence as the lead music supervisor on Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" in 1961. Kostal quickly became one of the most in-demand music directors in Hollywood, and enjoyed almost unparalleled success during a career which lasted over 20 years, which saw him working on such classic and beloved films as “Mary Poppins” (1964, with Richard and Robert Sherman), “The Sound of Music” (1965, with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II), “Brigadoon” (1966, with Frederick Loewe), “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (1968, again with the Sherman Brothers), “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” (1971, with the Shermans for a third time), and “Pete's Dragon” (1977, with Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn). After guiding Disney into the 1980s, Kostal slipped quietly into retirement, and died of a heart attack in Sherman Oaks, California in 1994, aged 83. At the time of his death he was serving as President of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. He was officially named a “Disney Legend” by the famous corporation in 2004, a fitting accolade for one of the Magic Kingdom’s most talented musical artists.
Highlight Scores: West Side Story, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Brigadoon, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Half a Sixpence, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Blue Bird, Pete's Dragon, Mickey's Christmas Carol.
Awards: Academy Awards for "West Side Story" (1961) and "The Sound of Music" (1965), nominations for "Mary Poppins" (1964), "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971) and "Pete's Dragon" (1977).
Joe Kraemer
Born: Albany, New York.
Background: One of a group of exciting young American composers to break into film music in the last decade. Studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and took the Film Scoring class at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and began his career working on mainly small-scale independent features, but also as an assistant to composers such as Marco Beltrami, John Ottman and Freedy Johnson. He made a splash with his score for the hit thriller "The Way of the Gun" in 2000, directed by one of Ottman’s former collaborators Christopher McQuarrie, and has since gone on to score a number of acclaimed, if not exactly high-profile, films, notably “The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting” (2003), “House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim” (2005), “The Poseidon Adventure” (2005) and “My Big Fat Independent Movie” (2005). As a singer/songwriter, Kraemer regularly performs in and around Los Angeles, has released an album of original songs, and has produced recordings for artists such as Dylan Kussman, Lisa Donahey, and Valerie Peterson. He has also worked as a music editor, sound effects editor, and as an actor, notably appearing in the film "Chi Girl", directed by Heidi Van Lier.
Highlight Scores: The Way of the Gun, The Hitcher II, Framed, We Married Margo, Hard Ground, House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim, The Poseidon Adventure, My Big Fat Independent Movie.
Links: Official Site
Milan Kymlicka
Born: 15 May 1936, Louny, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic).
Background: Czech-born composer who has spent most of his career working on film and TV projects in Canada. Prior to his arrival in Toronto in 1968, Kymlicka had studied with Emil Hlobil at the Prague Conservatoire, and at the Czech Academy of Musical Arts, and completed a ballet, piano and string quartets, a cello concerto, and some 20 domestic film scores. By the early 1970s he was established as one of Canada's leading studio arranger-conductors, handling music for the CBC radio shows of Ivan Romanoff and others, and working with such popular artists as Bill Amesbury, Peter Appleyard, Peter Foldy, The Good Brothers, Ray Materick, Anne Murray, Suzanne Stevens, Sweet Blindness, and Ian Thomas. He scored his first major film, “The Reincarnate” in 1971, and since then has gone on to write scores for a number of feature films (notably the children’s animation “Babar: The Movie” in 1989, the Genie-winning drama “Margaret’s Museum” in 1995, the 1998 sci-fi adventure based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World”) TV series (such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “Babar” and “The King Chronicle”), and some forty CBC radio dramas. Besides his work for the entertainment industry Kymlicka continues writing chamber music. Among his more recent compositions are a Sonatina, Four Pieces, Four Valses, and Five Preludes for piano, ‘Two Dances’ for clarinet and piano, ‘Partissima’ for solo violin, and ‘Cassation’ for two violins, viola, clarinet, and bassoon. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1974.
Highlight Scores: The Reincarnate, Wedding in White, Babar: The Movie, The Amityville Curse, La Florida, Matusalem, La Vie d'un Héros, The Paper Boy, Margaret’s Museum, Little Men, The Lost World.


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