This year’s roundtable will be moderated by BMI’s Vice President of Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer Ross, and will feature BMI composers Terence Blanchard (Inside Man; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), George S. Clinton (Austin Powers; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), Don Davis (The Good Life), Adam Gorgoni (Starting Out in the Evening), Peter Golub (Wordplay; Composers Lab Director), Andrew Hollander (Waitress), David Robbins (King of California), Anton Sanko (Delirious), Ed Shearmur (Dedication; Composer Lab Advisor), Alex Wurman (The Nines; Composer Lab Advisor), and Craig Wedren (The Ten). The event will also feature directors John August (The Nines), Steve Berra (The Good Life), Mike Cahill (King of California), Justin Theroux (Dedication) and David Wain (The Ten).

BMI will present its annual Composer/Director Roundtable during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival being held Jan. 18-28 in Park City, Utah. Entitled "Music & Film: The Creative Process," the roundtable will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 24 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sundance House at the Kimball Art Center (638 Park Avenue). This event is open to festival badge holders.

Terence Blanchard	George S. Clinton	Ed Shearmur

BMI has been an ongoing supporter of the film music program at the Festival as well as at the Sundance Composers Lab held each summer at the Sundance Institute. Click here for more information on BMI events at Sundance as well as on-site coverage of the Festival.

This year's roundtable will be moderated by BMI's Vice President of Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer Ross, and will feature BMI composers Terence Blanchard (Inside Man; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), George S. Clinton (Austin Powers; Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), Don Davis (The Good Life), Adam Gorgoni (Starting Out in the Evening), Peter Golub (Wordplay; Composers Lab Director), Andrew Hollander (Waitress), David Robbins (King of California), Anton Sanko (Delirious), Ed Shearmur (Dedication; Composer Lab Advisor), Alex Wurman (The Nines; Composer Lab Advisor), and Craig Wedren (The Ten). The event will also feature directors John August (The Nines), Steve Berra (The Good Life), Mike Cahill (King of California), Justin Theroux (Dedication) and David Wain (The Ten).

The panel will focus on the role music plays in film, the composer/director relationship, the growing role of documentaries, and the art of scoring for that medium, as well as the creative expansion of the form.

The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film. Held each January in and around Park City, Utah, the Festival is a core program of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Presenting 120 dramatic and documentary feature-length films in seven distinct categories, and 80 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films of the past two decades, including Little Miss Sunshine, Quinceañera, Clerks, Hustle and Flow, Maria Full of Grace, Napoleon Dynamite, sex, lies and videotape, Smoke Signals and Super Size Me. Beyond the streets of Park City, the official website of the Sundance Film Festival shares the Festival experience with a global audience through the streaming of short films, filmmaker interviews, and current news and box office information.

Visit BMI @ Sundance 2007

Shown after the performance are (l-r): BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross, composer Bruce Babcock, Festival Director/Founder Gregory Cherninsky, composer Aaron Zigman, Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church Music Director Nick Strimple, and composers Bruce Broughton, Don Davis and Gernot Wolfgang. Photo by Annamaria DiSanto

The Beverly Hills International Music Festival was founded in 2004 to bring the best of classical chamber music to a city generally known for its array of elegance and to provide intensive study opportunities for students. During the Festival, young musicians have the opportunity to hear the faculty artists perform in recitals and work with them in master classes, lectures and private lessons. Students are offered at least four private lessons, one Master Class with one of the faculty artists, participation in the Chamber Orchestra Workshop, and participation as a soloist in the Festival's closing gala performance. ]]> 2006-09-08T05:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/334648 Artists, Davis, Don Don Davis, whose new opera-in-progress Río de Sangre recently premiered at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Grant Gershon conducted the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Orchestra, with soloists Elissa Johston, Jonathan Mack, Hector Vasquez, Kerry Walsh and Christopher Campbell covering the major roles in oratorio style.

Congratulating composer Don Davis (center) are BMI's Linda Livingston and Ivanne Deneroff.

Called Davis's most ambitious work to date, the story takes place in an unnamed Latin American republic during the aftermath of a coup d'etat, where its new leader carries his misguided attempts to break the cycle of oppression.

The Emmy Award-winning composer is best know for the music to the Matrix trilogy.]]> 2005-12-20T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/234057 Avant, Beal, Jeff, Cerf, Christopher, Copeland, Stewart, Davis, Don, Davis, Jonathan, Edelman, Randy, Elfman, Danny, Foster, David, Goldsmith, Jerry, Hagen, Earle, Kamen, Michael, Kent, Rolfe, Korn, Kuo, Gary, Matrix, The, Menken, Alan, Mothersbaugh, Mark, Newman, David, Newman, Thomas, Oler, Kim, Post, Mike, Schifrin, Lalo, Shapiro, Theodore, Sherman, Robert, Townshend, Pete, Williams, John, Williams, Lenny, Williams, Patrick, Wilshire, Film-TV, Rock, Important, BMI Film TV Awards Mark Mothersbaugh Honored for Outstanding Career Achievement

BMI honored the composers and songwriters of the music from the past year's top-grossing films, top-rated prime-time network television series and highest-ranking cable television shows at its annual Film & Television Awards dinner on May 12. Held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, the black-tie gala was hosted by BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston. Preston and Doreen Ringer Ross, BMI's Vice President of Film/TV Relations, gave out more than 100 awards during the ceremonies.

Click here for the 2004 BMI Film/TV Awards Song List

Click here for Film/TV awards event photos

One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of the BMI Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement to composer/artist Mark Mothersbaugh. Named after late BMI Vice President Richard Kirk, the prestigious award is given annually to the composer who has made significant contributions to film and TV music. Former recipients of the award include John Barry, Randy Edelman, Danny Elfman, Charlie Fox, Jerry Goldsmith, Earle Hagen, Michael Kamen, Alan Menken, Thomas Newman, Mike Post, Lalo Schifrin, Alan Silvestri, Richard and Robert Sherman, W.G. "Snuffy" Walden, John Williams, Patrick Williams and Hans Zimmer.

Mark Mothersbaugh	Mike Post

One of the most unique and prolific contemporary composers in film, television, interactive media and commercials, Mothersbaugh was a founding member of influential rock group Devo, parlaying his avant-garde musical background into the world of scoring for filmed and animated entertainment. An artist both musically and in the literal definition, Mothersbaugh has created an aural framework with his scores for the forthcoming films Lords of Dogtown and The Life Aquatic, as well as having scored the hugely successful Rugrats television, stage and film franchise. He has also scored a diverse array of films and television shows, including Thirteen, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, 200 Cigarettes, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Happy Gilmore, The Mind of the Married Man, Power Puff Girls, Pee Wee's Playhouse, Beakman's World and more. With over 100 credits in the medium including over 400 commercial credits, Mothersbaugh is also co-owner of Mutato Muzika, an umbrella company that is home to a full-time staff of composers and music editors.

Korn

At the dinner, Mothersbaugh was honored by some of the directors he's worked with, as well as by the characters from Rugrats. Director Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic) called Mothersbaugh a "conceptual artist...his studio is kind of like Andy Warhol's factory. He's very versatile, his mind is constantly spinning and coming up with different things, and he's not locked into any one direction. He's more interested in trying everything."

"What Mark brings to my movies that's the most important to me has to do with the tone to them," said Anderson. "He's drawn to something - his sense of humor and a sort of wistfulness to him - that is the right kind of chemistry for my movies. It fixes the oddness of the movies and mixes into it something that has to be just right, and somehow he knows where that needs to fall."

Director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) said she was a fan of Motherbaugh's work and wanted him to score her directorial debut Thirteen but was afraid he might not want to do the low-budget film. "I just tried to think of things that would get him excited about doing it," she said. Describing a scene in the movie that she thought would appeal to his creative side, she said she asked him, "Mark would you be interested in creating the sound of brain cells popping?"

Hardwicke went on to describe Mothersbaugh as, "Quirky, crazy, super imaginative, super creative...you don't know what the answer will be and that's the fun of it. He will surprise you with something you didn't plan on, or didn't anticipate. That's what I like, I want to be surprised," she said. "He wants to make it work and delight you too. He gets into a character's head and understands that words can be too heavy handed. I think his music helps carry us places and makes us feel things."

Other top winners at the BMI Film & Television Awards included legendary composer Mike Post, who received the most nods with three for Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: CI. Also feted were double winning composers Don Davis for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, David Newman for Daddy Day Care and The Cat In The Hat, Theodore Shapiro for Along Came Polly and Starsky & Hutch, Rolfe Kent for Freaky Friday and Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Teddy Castellucci for Anger Management and 50 First Dates, Pete Townshend for CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, and Rob Cairns for The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

BMI also honored the composers of the highest-ranking cable television shows of the year, including Butch Hartman and Guy Moon for Fairly Oddparents and Danny Phantom, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh for All Grown Up, Stewart Copeland for The Amanda Show, Douglas Cuomo for Sex and the City, and Brian S. Friedman and Rick A. Friedman II for Punk'd.

The Most Performed Song from a Motion Picture was awarded to the band Korn for their song "Did My Time" from Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. "Did My Time" was written by Jonathan Davis, David Silveria, Munky, Fieldy and Head, and published by Evileria Music, Fieldysnuttz Music, Gintoe Music, Musik Munk Publishing and Stratosphericyoness Music.

BMI's Emmy Award winning composers were also honored, including Jeff Beal for Monk, Christopher Cerf and Glen Daum for Sesame Street, Lenny Williams and Chris Biondo for National Geographic Explorer - "Hornets From Hell," A.J. Gundell, Jerry Pilato, Dominic Messinger, Gary Kuo and Kim Oler for All My Children, John Henry Kreitler for "Forever Near" from Passions, and David Foster and Linda Thompson for "Aren't They All Our Children" from The Concert For World Children's Day.]]> 2004-05-12T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/podcasts/container/133396 Don Davis discusses The Matrix franchise, what next? Davis, Don, Matrix, The, Pop, In Their Own Words, Video, 2004, BMI Film TV Awards 2004-05-11T18:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/234042 Artists, Davis, Don, Young, Christopher, Musical Styles, Film-TV Hollywood Entertainment Museum. The exhibit displays works from the Film Noir genre and features BMI composers Don Davis and Christopher Young, along with dozens of other classic and contemporary composers.

Shown at the reception are exhibit co-curator Warren Sherk, BMI composer Christopher Young, exhibit co-curator Jan-Christopher Horak, BMI's Ivanne Deneroff and BMI composer Don Davis.

The exhibit, co-presented by the Film Music Society, runs through June 7 and chronicles the composers' approach to scoring through disc recordings, music sketches and manuscripts, photographs, sheet music, cue sheets and other production-related materials.]]> 2004-04-29T18:00:01-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233938 Artists, Davis, Don, Matrix, The, Musical Styles, Film-TV The Society of Composers and Lyricists recently held a screening of The Matrix Revolutions, followed by a Q&A session with BMI composer Don Davis. The Emmy Award-winning composer and orchestrator, who scored all the movies from the sci-fi trilogy, also wrote the music for the soundtrack to The Animatrix, nine anim� shorts based on the movie, as well as the Enter the Matrix video game.

BMI's Ivanne Deneroff is seen here with composer Don Davis after the screening of The Matrix Revolutions.

]]> 2004-01-04T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233876 Artists, Davis, Don, Jackson, Randy, Matrix, The, Pelfrey, Danny, Musical Styles, Film-TV, Musicworld, Feature The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference is now offering a discounted registration fee of $199 to BMI songwriters. Full price, walk-up registration for the 2-day conference, to be held November 19-20 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, is $450.

The second annual conference will feature sessions and panels on music, film, and TV industry related topics, as well as an opening keynote address by actor/director/producer Clint Eastwood. Other special guests include director/producer/composer Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Once Upon a Time in Mexico); multiple Oscar-and Grammy-nominee James Newton Howard; music supervisor Jason Bentley, composer Don Davis, sound designer/supervising sound editor Dane A. Davis and editor Zach Staenberg (all from The Matrix Reloaded); composer Danny Pelfrey (American Dreams, Felicity, Spin City); American Idol judge Randy Jackson; The WB's Leonard Richardson; music supervisor Greg Sill (American Dreams, Boomtown); producer Irwin Winkler; actor/director/writer Michael McKean; Chicago producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron; Miramax music chief Randy Spendlove; Evolution Talent's Christine Russell; and Lion's Gate music & soundtracks head Joel C. High.

Download the form now (pdf, 50k) to claim this special offer.]]> 2003-10-21T18:00:01-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233830 Artists, Adams, John, Avant, Davis, Don, Linkin Park, Matrix, The, Rage Against the Machine, Musical Styles, Film-TV, Rock, Musicworld, Hitmaker The sci-fi trilogy The Matrix not only revealed a hidden world programmed by evil computers, it also cast a spotlight on Emmy-winning composer and orchestrator (“The Beauty and the Beast,” “Seaquest DSV”) Don Davis.

"I knew these guys had quite a bit up their sleeves," says the Anaheim-born, UCLA grad, who majored in music theory and composition. "But, I had no idea it would turn into working on this kind of blockbuster."

Davis, currently hard at work in his Calabasas home studio on the final film, The Matrix Revolutions, which opens in November, has seen his music scoring for the series turn into a cottage industry. In addition to the three films, the 46-year-old composer provided the soundtrack for The Animatrix, nine animé shorts based on the movie and released on DVD by Warner Home Video, and the “Enter the Matrix” video game.

The Matrix showcases Davis’ ability to combine traditional movie orchestration with a pulsing, tribal electronic score (featuring rockers by Linkin Park, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Rage Against the Machine, P.O.D. and Deftones), underlining the movie’s blend of futurism and primitivism. He collaborated with Ben Watkins of the rock band Juno Reactor on The Matrix Reloaded’s two set pieces: the freeway chase and the "Burly Brawl" sequence where Neo battles multiple Agent Smiths.

"Our approach was for there to be no seams between the different musical styles," says Davis, whose scores for the series evoke avant-garde, post-modernist, new music composers like John Adams, minimalists Steve Reich and Philip Glass and even art-metal rockers Nine Inch Nails and Tool.

Indeed, the music for the climactic battle scene in The Matrix Revolutions will include a choir singing psalms from ancient Hindu texts in the original Sanskrit. "It will shed another light on the philosophies the Wachowskis want to convey," he explains.

Despite his success on The Matrix, Davis remains committed to continuing to compose outside film and TV. He is currently completing an opera, Rio de Sangre, to be performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2005.

"Scoring a film, I have to parlay my time in terms of minutes written per day," he says. "When I’m writing concert music, it’s more like days per minute. It’s a real luxury to be able to jump back and forth between the two."