2010 Composing for the Screen Program Kicks Off in September
The acclaimed Composing for the Screen 2010: A Film Scoring Mentorship Program commences next month. Sponsored by BMI and housed in the organization’s New York offices, the program is directed by composer Rick Baitz. Nine emerging film composers will be selected to participate in the series of intensive workshops, which run weekly from September 16 through October 20. The sessions will challenge participants to examine film music from many perspectives, from historical and psychological to dramatic, stylistic and more.
Additionally, during the year following the workshop, regular meetings will be held with the group, to share work and discuss students’ development as film composers.
Composers interested in applying for the program should possess the following qualifications: Experience and credits as a composer; ability to read music; some experience composing for film preferred. Applicant should have access to professional music production equipment, such as a computer, with composing software (such as Logic, Digital Performer or ProTools) and notation software (such as Sibelius or Finale); ability to create MIDI or hybrid scores.
Applications must be received by Wednesday, September 1. Download the application here.
Program director Rick Baitz composes for film, television, the concert stage, dance, theater, and recordings. Baitz’s recent film credits include the award-winning PBS documentary Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy, HBO’s The Vagina Monologues and Life Afterlife, the Sundance-honored The Education of Shelby Knox, National Geographic’s acclaimed specials The New Chimpanzees, Heart of Africa and Looters, and Atom Films’ Baby Steps, starring Kathy Bates.
A recipient of Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Tanglewood, and the Earle Hagan/BMI Film Scoring Workshop, Rick has been nominated for the American Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters Music Award and has won several Meet the Composer Awards. His concert works have been performed across the U.S., Europe and Latin America, while his Juilliard-commissioned quintet “River of January” won the Delius Composition Contest and has been praised as a “glowing jewel of a new score” by the New York Times. He recently completed a large-scale string quartet for the renowned ensemble “Ethel.”
Rick was raised in Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Durban, South Africa. He received his Doctorate in Composition from Columbia University in New York, and also studied Composition at Manhattan School of Music. He has taught film scoring and composition at Columbia College Chicago, and continues to teach out of his studio, Rick Baitz Music, in New York City.
The Schedule Six sessions, to be held at the BMI Media Room, 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St, NYC (except for Session 5, the final recording session, location TBA)
- Thursday, Sept. 16, 4-7 p.m.
- Thursday, Sept. 23, 4-7 p.m.
- Thursday, Sept. 30, 4-7 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 6, 4-7 p.m.
- Wednesday, Oct. 13, 4-7 p.m. (Recording session, location TBA)
- Wednesday, Oct. 20, 4-7 p.m.
All inquiries should be directed to Rick Baitz at filmmusic@rickbaitz.com.
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