ASMAC VIDEO ON-DEMAND

Storytelling through Music and Compositional Strategies Featuring Charles Fernandez Programmatic Writing Inspiration Ideas How to Get Started Compositional Techniques to Expand Your Music and Keep It Interesting Award-winning, Emmy and Annie-nominated composer Charles Fernandez will take you through some of his works and share ideas you can use in your own compositions. Discussion includes how to address and solve problems and how to get started when that commission comes in! This educational webinar focuses on concert works; using examples of music written for the concert stage. Lessons learned here can certainly apply to composition in any situation.

Deep Dive Into Theme, Variations and Delivery ASMAC International Masterclass Online Series from June 13th, 2020 featuring composer Alex Wurman, moderated by Sylvester Rivers. ● Chord by chord and phrase by phrase, Alex deconstructs his favorite theme from the EPIX original show, Perpetual Grace LTD (starring Jimmi Simpson, Ben Kingsley, Jacki Weaver). ● Using the final mix ProTools session from the show, Alex demonstrates his approach to writing the theme and how he writes thematic material that can be used in many different ways. ● A deep dive into Alex's process, which is a hybrid of traditional composition and contemporary recording techniques. ALEX WURMAN EMMY® Award-winning composer Alex Wurman is highly versatile with a broad musical palette. He is able to work with directors in many different genres. Whether writing critically-acclaimed music for an Oscar®-winning film, supporting comedy with musical punctuation for box office giants, or capturing the essence of brainy ideas for indie films, Wurman traverses the film-score landscape with ease. This is exemplified by his eerie piano melodies of Confessions of A Dangerous Mind, groovy ’70’s themes for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, contemporary interpretations of French impressionism for Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, and soulful melodies combined with ethereal orchestrations for March of the Penguins. Most recently, Alex scored Perpetual Grace LTD starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Jimmi Simpson, and Between Two Ferns The Movie, starring Zach Galifianakis. SYLVESTER RIVERS Composer, arranger and pianist Sylvester Rivers has recorded with numerous hit artists including Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, The Jacksons, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson, Kenny Rogers, Johnny Mathis, Aretha Franklin, New Edition, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Barry White, Marc Bolan & T. Rex, Ray Parker, Jr. & Raydio, Deniece Williams, The Fifth Dimension and many others. Composing, arranging and orchestrating for television and film, as well, such as the television series, “Fame,” songs for the Kevin Bacon/ Laurence Fishburne film, “Quicksilver,” “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” “The Arsenio Hall Show” and numerous others, he has been prolific in producing music throughout a wide spectrum.

Join us for a fantastic journey with a legend, Conrad Pope, the premier orchestrator in Hollywood and an award-winning composer. In this classic 2012 ASMAC Master Class hosted by Ira Hearshen, Conrad Pope presents a historical look at music orchestration for films. Conrad has worked on virtually every style of production, from the Harry Potter series and Star Trek, to Pirates of the Caribbean and Marilyn Monroe films. He goes into deep detail working as an orchestrator in Hollywood, and does a deep dive into specific cues of composers such as John Williams and Alexander Desplat. The tidbits of life and rich anecdotes from musical Hollywood are endless in this 2 ½ hour masterclass. About Conrad Pope: Among his peers, Award-winning composer Conrad Pope is not only regarded as a "musician's musician," but he is recognized as an imaginative musical dramatist, able to contribute a meaningful dimension to a film's story. Pope's passionate commitment to telling a film's story with persuasive and compelling music has made him one of the most "in demand" scoring professionals. He was Supervising Orchestrator and Co-Producer for the scores to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I and II. Such canny composers as John Williams, Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, John Powell, Hans Zimmer, and Mark Isham have all called upon his gifts as an arranger, orchestrator and conductor. He has contributed to more than a hundred movies. He has worked on films of every genre and budget, making scores that “work" in almost every style. This "in the trenches" music making, working side by side with Hollywood's top professionals---including Joe Johnston and Walter Murch on Universal's The Wolfman, Scott Hicks on No Reservations and Gary Ross on Seabiscuit--has honed his ability to see films as a filmmaker does. It is Conrad's unique work experience and dramatic perspective that has made him a valuable collaborator, able to effectively and concretely communicate with a director about the contribution music can make to their film. Conrad's musical qualifications are rare in today's Hollywood. Classically trained at some of the world's finest music conservatories, he arrived in Hollywood with abilities to recreate with uncanny precision different styles of music. This talent was immediately seized upon by the industry's top musical professionals, leading to many arranging assignments of "source music" for diverse films, guiding him, ultimately, to the orchestrating and "ghost writing" of many major motion pictures. Today, few music professionals are as esteemed as Conrad for his first-hand, comprehensive command of the many facets of film scoring and, his reputation for consistently delivering "the goods." The iconic hits and contemporary classic films Pope has contributed to are too numerous to list. A small sampling includes: the most recent installments of the Star Wars films (The Phantom Menace, The Attack of the Clones, The Revenge of the Sith) the Harry Potter series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek X, the Matrix films. Memoirs of a Geisha, Julie and Julia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Christmas Carol and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.
 Among the awards his work has received are the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Fellowship and Fulbright Fellowship, while grants include: the New York State Arts Council, the MacDowell Foundation, the Alice Ditson Foundation, the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, the Whiting Foundation and Meet the Composer. Pope was also awarded First Prize by the Pacific Composers Forum Composition Competition.

In this masterclass, from 09/23/17 at The Evergreen Stage in Burbank, California, Scott explores some of the ways a composer can extend the harmonic, rhythmic, orchestrational and emotional language of large ensemble jazz writing. Topics include: •plastic meter - moving rhythms in and out of the grid •box and spacial notation •linear harmony, melodic pedal points, stratified harmony •free and group improvisation •writing "free" for rhythm section in a large ensemble •cross-doubling and transparent orchestration techniques Los Angeles-based Scott Healy is a composer, producer, pianist, multi-keyboardist and educator who multitasks across the musical spectrum. He is best-known for playing in the house band for Conan O’Brien. "Hudson City Suite" by the 10-piece Scott Healy Ensemble, received a 2014 Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Composition. In addition to his composing, recording, and live television work, Healy works in LA as a hired-gun session musician in Los Angeles