February 5, 2007

Anthony Marinelli

Hollywood-based composer Anthony Marinelli prefers not to pigeonhole music. “You have to come up with a filing system for a lot of things in life,” he avows. “My mind doesn’t do that — I don’t care if it’s roots-driven or classical music. It’s all just sound and emotion.”

With a growing résumé of film credits, including 15 Minutes, Timecode, God Said Ha! and Two Days in the Valley, Marinelli adds to his credits Mayor of the Sunset Strip, the tale of Hollywood icon Rodney Bingenheimer and the darker side of fame. “I played what I thought was Rodney. In the midst of this profound exuberance, fame, beautiful Hollywood and happy people with success and money, there was a lot of struggle.”

Marinelli composed for a chilling chapter in celebrity with his latest project, Chapter 27, which chronicles the last three days in the life of John Lennon and his assassin, Mark David Chapman. Originally, the composer and some musician friends planned to improvise a psychedelic score, but the project now features Marinelli’s classical score with a 60-piece orchestra. “They play against picture, almost like Tchaikovsky in The Nutcracker,” he explains. 

With television credits and an extensive list of award-winning commercials, Marinelli recently contributed production to singer/songwriter Shawn Amos’s Thank You Shirl-ee May, and molded Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass classics into modern remixes. This past summer he composed a tone poem, “In the Family,” featuring narration by writer/actress Julia Sweeny. Commissioned by the L.A. Philharmonic, the 22-minute piece was performed for two nights with a 90-piece orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. 

Beyond styles, Anthony Marinelli seems to gravitate to projects with heart and history. “We study and absorb, and it evolves from there. Hopefully we can make the music more original; but ultimately we just bring who we are.”

Dan Kimpel