Joseph Pulitzer Airing Nationally on PBS THIS Friday!

We are thrilled to announce that “Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People” will be airing nation-wide on PBS “American Masters”. We have gotten so much positive feedback from people seeing the film in theaters, both on the film itself, but also on the score. This makes us happy. We do believe that music in film should absolutely support what’s happening on screen and in the story of the characters it’s scoring, but also it should be good music on it’s own, just simply coming out of speakers. I know many do not agree with us and feel music for film should be of more the “invisible” variety. But, I bet if you go back to your absolute favorite films in life and play the scores, it will be real music that does indeed stand on it’s own.

Anyway, enjoy the film, check your local PBS station, I believe it’s 9pm in most regions.

Arranging

Doing a whole bunch of big string arrangements for a wonderful French Artist called Carole Martine. We’ll share when the album comes out!

just finished the score for "Corners"

Just wrote the score for a compelling short film called “Corners” starring Lynn Cohen (Munich and the Hunger Games), Aida Turturro (The Sopranos) and newcomer Katherine King. It’s a very well shot, universal, thoughtful film by director Anthony Nicolau. Anthony got in touch with us after seeing us (Clare and the Reasons) play eons ago play live in St Louis… It’s funny how everything you do in life can possibly lead to an artistically satisfying experience many many years down the road. We are very happy with the score and have been grateful to Anthony for having a clear vision for what he was imagining for the score.

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People Premiere at Lincoln Center January 10th

Hello all- You’re invited to the Premiere of the Joseph Pulitzer film we scored. Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater. The 6pm showing will have a Q&A after with director Oren Rudavsky. We’ll be there too!

Tickets here

There will also be a panel of journalists on Sunday, January 13th under the heading Pulitzer’s World: The Role of the Media in a Fake News Universe,” featuring Jami Floyd, host of All Things Considered, Adam Moss, Editor-in-Chief of New York magazine, filmmaker Oren Rudavsky, and Jodi Rudoren, Associate Managing Editor of The New York Times. 

pulitzer.jpg

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People

This film turned out great. it now has the voices of Adam Driver (narrator), Liev Schreiber (pulitzer), Rachel Brosnahan (Nelly Bly), Lauren Ambrose (Kate Davis Pulitzer).

Joseph Pulitzer spoke of "fake news" over 100 years ago and fought the dangers that the suppression of news had for a democracy long before our present threats to press freedom. His heroic battles have been forgotten along with anything we might learn from the tools he deployed against his enemies.

In Theatres and on PBS in 2019.

pulitzer.jpg

Ricky Jay will be greatly missed

We were lucky enough to score a wonderful documentary about the truly magical Ricky Jay. We were so sorry to hear of his passing over the weekend. He was a historian, maybe the greatest, in the history of magic and all things deception. Ricky was also considered the greatest slight of hand artist of his generation, as well as a highly respected actor. Read about him, and please, watch the documentary "DECEPTIVE PRACTICE: THE MYSTERIES AND MENTORS OF RICKY JAY". You can see it these days on Amazon. #rickyjay

Ricky Jay showart.jpg

A different sort of summer

This summer Olivier got asked by the band, The National, to be the music director on a new adaptation of Cyrano- Starring Peter Dinklage. Olivier's bible as a teenager was in fact "Cyrano de Bergerac", it all felt too special to pass up. So, we loaded up the car with kids, bug boxes, venus fly traps, music gear and headed to Connecticut for the summer.  I can tell you, it was loads of work, but completely worth it, for art's sake. It was an incredibly moving production and you'll be hearing more about it.

images.jpg

Scoring "Witness Theater"

We're enjoying getting immersed in writing another score for a new Oren Rudowsky film (busy guy!) This film is completely heart breaking and heart warming, all at once.  We say we are mostly scoring all of it because they are also licensing some beautiful pieces from composers such as Osvaldo Golijov. The film is the about an incredible story of NYC teenagers coming together with Holocaust survivors to learn about their lives and then to stage their survival stories theatrically.  To see the surprisingly deep connection between the teenagers and the survivors is a testament that we are all humans and can always try to make an effort to understand on a deeper level. It's also a reminder that these stories NEED to be told over and over, through all generations so we may never forget what really happened. 

Music before image! Yay for that.

Just wrote an old fashioned Gershwin type orchestral score for a commercial being shot in Palm Springs next week. It has been an exciting experience to get to write and record the music BEFORE the commercial was shot. This is because all the dancers will be choreographed to our music. Can't wait to see the final cut! We'll share it soon. 

 

Writing the score for a short french film

Enjoying writing the music for Laetitia Martinoni's short film in Paris. It's based on her own story of being a young mother diagnosed with breast cancer.  It's very moving, creative and filled with great humor, all through an obviously painful situation. It's called L'échappée, hopefully it'll become a feature length, it's a bold, refreshingly honest story. Read about it more here.

Starting a PBS score on Joseph Pulitzer

We're very content to be working, once again, with a very smart director, Oren Rudavsky.  He has been working like mad on an incredibly interesting and timely documentary about Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer started the first gigantic, completely independent newspaper in the 1890's called The News Of The World.  We'll keep you posted on the PBS air date. 

 

Tammy Fender Beauty line

We've embarked on a new kind of project; scoring beautifully shot, scrumptious short pieces about the facial herbalist extraordinaire Tammy Fender.  These are Directed by Paul Austin from the Austin Advisory Group and he knows how to make an advertising intension feel like an artistic, lush film that one gets lost in. Yes, we like scoring a short film shot in France in the Berry region set in beautiful medieval religious gardens. Yes!

Postcards from the Great Divide

We've been having a blast doing the music for the opening animations for a PBS/Wall Street Journal co production. Postcards from the Great Divide is a series of 9 short documentaries examining the partisan, ideological and ethnic splits in American politics. Watch all the films at http://www.politicalpostcards.org/

WGBH's "American Experience" on PBS

We're getting very excited to start working on a film for American Experience produced by WGBH, to air on PBS.  Details to follow, but this will be quite a dark score, and dark is good if you ask us.