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September 28, 2025 55 mins
Show Notes

In this episode, I sit down with Mark Watters to talk about a life lived in music: from Disney, Pixar, and Olympic scores, to his role today at Eastman School of Music, where he oversees the Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media. We get deep into the Eastman Film & Media Festival—how it started, what it’s become, and why Rochester, NY is fast becoming a home for composer communities and cinematic sound.Mark reveals:
  • His early obsession with film music (yes, Star Wars fourteen times just for the score)
  • How “The Art & Craft of Music for Animation” ended up as a session at Soundtrax, hosted by him. Soundtrax Film Music Fest+1
  • Why the Eastman Festival is more than panels and concerts—it’s an immersive space for composers to test ideas
  • His thoughts on legacy, mentorship, and how teachers and students exchange influence
  • The way he listens now—and how that listening echoes what first drew me into music
We also weave in my own origin story: discovering Mo’ Better Blues via BBC Two, being changed by Terence Blanchard’s trumpet, and inviting back Cynda Williams (as Clarke Bentancourt, and on “Harlem Blues”) because she embodies that space between story and song.As part of this musical conversation, I reference how The South Bank Show elevated composers through storytelling, and I end with a poetic note on Rochester—where winter winds and Eastman echoes make composition both memory and promise.

Soundtrax Highlights to MentionFrom the Soundtrax Film Music Festival (October 16–18, 2025, at Eastman / Rochester) schedule: Soundtrax Film Music Fest
  • “The Art & Craft of Music for Animation” — hosted by Mark Watters in Kilbourn Hall
  • Film Scores Live! — Terence Blanchard with E-Collective & Gateways Festival Orchestra in Kodak Hall
  • John Williams Reimagined — concert of Williams’ themes rearranged for flute, cello, piano University of Rochester Calendar+1
  • Interstellar in Concert — live performance of the Zimmer/Nolan score in Rochester’s Third Presbyterian Church visitrochester.com+1
W: Soundtrax Film Music Festival



Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Welcome back to Filmmaking Conversations with me your host Damien Swaby.
Today I'm joined by Mark Watters. You know his music
from Disney to the Olympics to Pixar. But what really

(00:24):
drives our conversation is his work now at the Eastman
School of Music as director of the Bill Institute for
Music and Contemporary Media. He's shaping the next generation of
screen composers and curating the Eastman Film and Media Festival,
a three day celebration of music and image that's quickly

(00:44):
become a cultural landmark. It's Eastman's way of honoring George
Eastman's original vision, film and music together alive in one
space and listening to Mark, I was reminded of my
own first bark. I discovered Melbetter Blues on BBC two
back in the nineties. Late night. Terrence Blanchard's trumpet cut

(01:07):
him through the silence. That sound changed how I listened.
It taught me to find music in the pauses, in
the long in that night shaped my ear in many ways,
shaped this podcast. It's also why I've invited Cinder Williams
here twice. In mel Better Blues, she played Clark, the

(01:28):
singer who steps into Bleak's band and into his life,
and her voice carries Harlem blues on the soundtrack. She
embodies that space where the song and the story collide,
and so, in the spirit of the South Bank Show,
which profiled musicians like Wynton Marcellis, Oscar Peterson and Weather Report,

(01:50):
today's conversation isn't just about credits and career milestones. It's
about what music means and how it shapes us and
why it keeps calling us back. Because in Rochester, New York,
where winter winds carved long silences and the Eastman Halls
echo with new scores, composition isn't only about notes on

(02:11):
the paper. It's about stitching community and memory together, arranging
a city's past with its future, measure by measure. And
that's where we begin with Mark Watters. Mark, how are
you today?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm fine, Damien, nice to be here, glad.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad you're fine. I've
read and I know so much about you and your work.
This is going to be an excellent podcast, and I'm
going to learn a lot, that's for sure. Great Mark,
You've had such a wide ranging career, from Disney to
the Olympics to Pixar. When you look back, what first
drew you into the world of film music.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well, I suppose it's a lot. Like most people that
choose this career path, they were drawn to it before
they even knew they were drawn to it. I can
remember as a youngster being taken by, you know, affected
by music, and particularly when I would watch a movie
or a TV show. I found as I got older,

(03:13):
into college, I found that I was more interested in
seeing a movie for a second or third or fourth time,
mainly just to hear the music. And it wasn't that
I was thinking I would go into a career in this.
It was just like, I want to hear the music again.
Star Wars came out the summer after I graduated from college,

(03:36):
and I think I saw it fourteen times, and it
was all because of the music. And it was not
because I had a interest or even a dream that
I would go into this profession. It would be another
five years before I would take a course that started
my career path. But I was just so taken by

(03:57):
how you know music is the capability that music has
of being able to tell a story and to enhance
a story, and how we are affected by certain colors,
certain vibrations, certain rhythms, certain sounds that enhance our ability

(04:17):
to absorb a story. I was just very fascinated by that.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Completely understanding. I can completely relate to what you're saying.
Music can really change things and develop things and manipulate
things and enhance things. There's a lot of YouTube videos
out there right now where you'd have a horror film
and replace the original music in the film, whether the
theme tuned to bugs, binding or something. Can you completely

(04:43):
see how And.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Isn't it interesting how your ears have more of an
impact on you than your eyes. Your ears tell you
this is funny. Yeah, I've had the opportunity and I
love doing this. I've gone into schools and I'll take
similar type of videos. And what's really fun is to
go to an elementary school where I'm dealing with six

(05:05):
seven eight year olds and you know it's important for
them to hear Beethoven and Brahms and Bach, but you
put a cartoon in front of them and suddenly you're
on there. You know, you're in their world and you
talk to them about how music can affect this story.
And I do exactly what the YouTube videos do. I'll
play a scene without music, I'll play it with the music.

(05:28):
Then I'll play it with the wrong music. And even
at the age of six or seven or eight, they
respond to this. They they get it. They know that
this is not right, or they know something is missing.
I just find that fascinating. And I was going to say,
you know, you don't. You don't have to be a
musician to be affected by music. That's what's so cool

(05:49):
about it.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
You know, completely completely, you can take all sorts of music.
When you say something like that, for example, the wedding
song that many people's wedding can be the most important
song of their lives. Oh, absolutely, yeah, you know none
of those people, Well, most of those people are not
musicians on that day. Well that's all. He was six
time Emmy winner and have worked with legends from John

(06:12):
Williams to Beyonce. Of all of those experiences, which moments
stand out as the most transformative for you as an artist?

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Well, I met John Williams when I was the music
director of the nineteen ninety six Olympic Games in Atlanta,
and of course he had been commissioned to write this one,
you know, his theme and fanfare for it. He ended
up he wrote four Olympic fanfare and themes, the first

(06:42):
being for eighty four in Los Angeles and then again
in eighty eight for Soul, Korea, And this was his
third one for Atlanta. And so I was present when
we recorded it. We had a wonderful opportunity to meet
and converse at various events leading up to the opening ceremonies.

(07:06):
But I remember specifically in the green room, you know,
which is the room where you know, participants, UH hang
out in before going out onto the field, getting a
chance to really sit and visit with him. And he
was the most kindest, most humble, delightful man. And you know,

(07:28):
to hear John Williams ask me about my career and
what I'm doing and what I want to do and
all this stuff, and it was just very very special.
I would not have had the opportunity to do that
had I not been hired to be the music director
for it, So I would I would say that the
you know, the two the two gigs, the two jobs

(07:50):
that I've done that have really stood out are the
two Olympics that I was music director for the same
opportunity came about six years later with the two two
thousand and two Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and
again John was asked to write the theme for it
because he was really wanting to work with a Mormon
Tabernacle choir which was going to be a featured ensemble

(08:13):
for the opening ceremonies. So again it was great to
get a chance to work with him. I mean when
I say work with him. Obviously John didn't need any assistance.
He didn't certainly didn't need any direction, which was great
because it allowed me to just sit back and watch
him work. He truly is a remarkable individual. His talent,

(08:40):
his intellect, his discipline were very inspiring to me, and
I came away from that really affected and inspired by that.
So getting a chance to work with your heroes is
always fun. The opportunity to work with Beyonce came about

(09:02):
because of a TV special that ironically was produced by
the same man that produced the two Olympics that I did,
So obviously I did a good enough job that he
hired me to be the music director for this wonderful
TV special called Movies Rock where they got contemporary artists
like Beyonce and John John Legend and Mary J. Blige

(09:28):
and you know, artists such as this, Carrie Underwood and
oh gosh, it was an amazing list of artists. But
then they had them sing classic movie songs. So Beyonce
sang Over the Rainbow, and Mary J. Blige and John
Legends sang as Time Goes By from Casablanca, and Carrie

(09:50):
Underwood sang The Sound of Music. And as music director,
I did some of the arrangements for the show. I
wrote all the themes and production music for and and
got to conduct then the arrangement for Over the Rainbow
that Beyonce did. It's on YouTube. I encourage everybody to
just do a YouTube search for Beyonce Over the Rainbow

(10:14):
and is there. And you know, it was a thrill to.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Work with her.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
I mean, and again, like John Williams, it's not accidental
that she is who she is. She is an amazing talent,
but also just just capable of seeing the whole scheme
of things. You know, she is, you know, aware of
everything that's happening in her universe. She is more than
just a talented singer and a pretty face. She's quite

(10:42):
quite a remarkable person. So these kind of you know,
opportunities change you. You know, they should change you. You know,
they they not only inspire you, but they teach you.
You know, the lessons that I learned on all these
projects that I had the opportunity of work on, I
take a little piece with me and hopefully I'm able

(11:03):
to share it with my students now at Eastman.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
And being personally asked by John Williams to co conduct
the Academy Awards, I mean, that's extraordinary. What does that
invitation mean to you?

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, it's a funny story. Shortly after the Olympics in
Salt Lake City, I was back home because I was,
of course, I was living in Salt Lake City for
two months leading up to the Olympics. And I was
back home and there's a message on my phone machine
and it was John Williams saying, John, this is Marcus

(11:37):
is John Williams if you would please give me a call.
And I just knew this was some friend of mine
playing a joke on me, so I didn't call back.
I just thought, oh, this is so and so or
this has got to be somebody you know who's a
good impersonator and you know, doing a joke. So I
didn't call back, and the next day John calls again

(11:59):
and leaves a message. Was Mark, you know, he's very understated.
I mean, I can't imagine John every yelling at anybody.
He's a very calm and collected individual. He said, Marca,
this is John Williams. I would appreciate it if he
would give me a call. I don't think he's used
to people not calling him back. So I immediately, you know,
called him back and apologize. Oh my god, John, I'm

(12:20):
so sorry. I really didn't believe it was you. And
he asked me. He had been the music director, I
think three other times of the Academy Awards, and he
was very busy and he didn't really want to do it.
But it was a very special opportunity because they were
opening a new theater that had been built specifically for

(12:43):
the Academy Awards. It was at the time it was
the Kodak Theater. It's now the Dolby Theater. But every
design for it, the size of the pit, the size
of the hall where the Governor's ball was going to
be held, everything was built to accommodate the Academy Awards,
so he wanted to be part of that opening, but

(13:06):
he didn't really want to do all the minutia details
of it, so he brought me in to help him
out on it. Of course, I was thrilled, and this
is a great example of John's abilities. At the time
we were doing the Academy Awards, he was preparing a
live to picture performance of ET. And this was before

(13:29):
this was the first ever live to picture performance of
an entire movie score. Now it's done all the time,
but this was the first time, and he was preparing
ET for a very special performance at the Shrine Auditorium.
So that was one thing. And you know there's a
lot that goes into preparing these, you know, the work

(13:50):
involved that you have to do in order to do that.
He was preparing the soundtrack album for Phantom Menace, the
so called Star Wars one score, and that that's very involved.
That would be a full time job for most people
because you're choosing takes, you're editing tracks together, you're building
a CD for the soundtrack and approving things, and if

(14:13):
you're having to remix things and do new edits and
all that it's very time consuming. He was composing the
score to Minority Report the Stevens, and he was music
directing the Academy Awards. And every time I met with him,
he knew exactly where every detail was. He knew exactly
have you called so and so, have you checked on this?

(14:35):
How was this coming about? You know, all this stuff.
I mean, he knew everything. And it was so exciting
because one of the things that goes on in the
Academy Awards, of course, is the Outstanding Achievement in Song,
and they always have the artists who performed the original
version of the movie perform it live at the Academy Awards.

(14:57):
So I got to work with Sting and Faith Hill
and Randy Newman and and and oh god, I'm trying
to think Paul McCartney. And because he didn't, you have
to you have to record a safety copy, h so
in case, just you know, because it's live TV, so
in case somebody shows up that day and they've lost

(15:17):
their voice, they have a backup for them to use.
Enya was the other one. She had sung the song
and co wrote the song for the Lord of the
Rings movie, So it was you know, you know, John
was like, why don't you take care of that? I went, yeah,
be happy to John. So it was just a thrill
to spend the day working with artists of that caliber.

(15:41):
And you know, again, you come away from it with
you know, your change. I mean you you just learned, Okay,
how do they deal with this? How do they handle
their their their career and their reputation and their you know,
their talent. It was just a great, great opportunity.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
I mean, all your experience and welcome some of the
most amazing talented people the industries ever seen. You're the
director of the Bill Institute for Music and Contemporary Media
at Eastman. How do you see your role in shape
in the next generation of film composers.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Well, it's it's a very good question. I mean it's
both humbling and exciting, a bit intimidating, because, like any
aspect of the entertainment industry, it changes on a daily basis.
So on the one hand, I want to bring my experiences,

(16:36):
my work ethic, my awareness. I bring my mistakes, my triumphs,
my failures. I bring all of that to the table
to you know, because certain things change and certain things
don't change. You know, what are the qualities that go
into being a successful film or television or video game

(16:59):
composed or a lot of those aspects have not changed,
you know, the desire, the discipline, the talent, the motivation,
the execution, and all of those things have not changed.
What changes is the technology and also how work is procured,

(17:20):
how you go about getting your career started. Those things changed.
So I'm constantly keeping my you know, ear to the
ground listening. I'm very much in contact with people in
Los Angeles to maintain an awareness of where the industry
is at. It's a good time to come in on

(17:42):
how the school has received an enormous gift again from
the Bells. Joan and Jeff Beal have made an enormous
donation to the school specifically to supplement and to an
increase the music technology end of things here at the school,

(18:05):
and it will be it will be a major game changer.
We're building an entire new wing for on the school,
six thousand square feet that will be completely dedicated to
music technology. They've brought in new faculty members. It's going
to be an amazing boost because the school has always

(18:28):
had a very very strong reputation in traditional music education.
They put more people into professional orchestras than any school
in the country. They have a fabulous composition department, a
great jazz department, a wonderful opera department, music education, all

(18:49):
of those things are you know, without question, Eastman is
in the top two percent of music schools in the world.
So to be able to bring a new level of
music technology to all of this, and it will help
that traditional end of things as well, because you know,
the modern musician has to have a lot more you know,

(19:12):
tools in their toolkit these days than just to be
able to play an instrument. You have got to be
aware of this, You've got to have you know, command
on it. And plus, you know, it's fun. The things
that we can do with music technology now are just
so much fun. To be able to play around with it,

(19:33):
to enhance your own creativity, to improve your your learning,
make things more interesting and more fun and quicker you
can absorb more. It's just a great opportunity for us,
and it is going to come about. The effects of
this are going to be seen well. The wing will

(19:54):
be open probably in about a year. They've already got
the blueprints for it. The construction has already started, so
I would say in another year it will open, and
every year it's going to have a bigger impact on things.
We're really excited about it. So I would say that,
you know, my job is to just keep people moving

(20:16):
in the right direction, you know, and you know, learning
as much as they can. I was just talking about
this with my students earlier this morning. You know, opportunities
come at the strangest time and some of the most
serendipitous moments, and the one common thread that goes through,

(20:39):
you know, we were talking about this about how all
these composers have different stories about how they broke out
and how they landed their careers and what were these
moments in their career, But the one common thread that
runs through all of it is that they were ready
when that opportunity came. They had the skill set ready
to act. So I think that is what our function

(21:03):
here at Eastman and in schooling in general, to you know,
prepare people and hopefully my experiences and you know, what
modest degree of talent I have and that I can
share with students and get them headed in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
I'm sure you will. I know you will. I know
you do. So that's great to hear. And let's dive
into soundtracks. This is being billed as North America's first
dedicated film music festival and conference. Why was now the
right time to launch something like.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
This, Well, it was way late. That's probably the best reason.
You know. It amazes me that there has never been
a film music festival in this country. There's there are
a dozen of them in Europe. Every country in Europe
has a film music festival. Italy, Germany, Poland, Belgium, France, England,

(22:03):
they all have Spain, they all have a film music festival.
And much of the content for these festivals are composers
and scores from the United States. So it always, you know,
hit me. It kind of started when I first got
here to Rochester, which was eight years ago, a little

(22:26):
over eight years ago, that this would be a great
place to have a film music festival, because if you
did it in Los Angeles or New York, I think
it would just be kind of lost with all the
you know, different movie and music events that take place.
Rochester is a very arts supported city, far more than

(22:49):
any I dare say, any city its size. We specifically
chose October because it is gorgeous here in October, with
the turning of the leaves in the autumn, the weather
is still manageable. It's a really attractive time. And I
think one thing I've learned being here in the East,

(23:11):
and this is my first time of living in the
you know, the Northeast, with the winners being what they are,
that when the winners break, everybody squeezes twelve months of
fun and activities into six months. So there's festivals every weekend.
There's a wine festival, a barbecue festival, a jazz festival,

(23:32):
a folk music festival, a basket weaving festival. And I thought, well,
let's do a film music festival here. So I teamed
up with a wonderful man named Mark Baco, who is
the head of the Audio engineering department at the University
of Rochester. A brilliant gentleman, as numerous patents and audio
engineering and you know, a real scientist, and we thought

(23:55):
we would team up to present a very unique film
music festival that had, you know, elements of both the
music part of it and the science part of it.
And Mark is really good at applying for grants, which
is a skill set that I don't have. And so
we received a two hundred thousand dollars grant from the

(24:17):
State of New York's Board of Tourism to promote tourism
in the area, and what a perfect opportunity to do this.
So that was the catalyst. Then Eastman I presented the
proposal to our new dean, actually presented the original idea

(24:37):
to our outgoing dean, but our new dean, who's only
in her second year, Kate Shearon, and she immediately said, oh, well,
Eastman wants to help you do this, and they became
a very significant partner and they bring to it, you know,
not only the facilities, but the musicians, the marketing, the
communications department, all of this has been an enormous help.

(25:02):
And it is making what would have been a you know,
kind of a neighborhood festival, you know, uh, promoting it
to people in the you know, the Rochester area to
a nationwide event and we're hoping to you know, bring
as many people from outside the area to attend. And
we're our our lineup of artists and composers and orchestrators

(25:28):
and concerts that we're doing. I'm so excited about.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
I can understand why. And your code direct in the
event with Jeff Bill, how did.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
That actually co directing it with Mark Bacco. Jeff is
going to be a very featured part of this. He
is conducting probably you know, one of the most important
concerts that we're doing. We're doing a live to picture
performance of The Red Violin by a Pulitzer Prize winning

(26:00):
Oscar winning composer named John Kriigliano, and Jeff will conduct that,
and that is a bigie. The score rarely is performed
because it's very difficult and you need a dynamite violin
soloist to do it, and we are. It was important

(26:20):
to me that we at least offer it to a
Eastman faculty member, and I'm very delighted that Eugene Sue.
To say that she's a brilliant violinist is an understatement
she is. I'm so excited about the opportunity to feature
her in this concert. So that's the second night of

(26:43):
the festival, October seventeenth, and Jeff will conduct that. He
will also be on a panel talking with John Krigliano.
Because the festival is a mix of panels, discussion opportunities,
and concerts. So we're doing five concerts, three in the
evening and then two others in the afternoon. And then

(27:05):
a series of panels where we have various composers and
orchestrators and the like discussing what they do and telling
stories and sharing their experiences and you know, kind of
pulling back the curtain to see how the sausage is made,
you know, so to speak.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
And the lineup is incredible. You wi so many other
talented people there. Could you tell us a bit about
who the Apple people are going to be a part
of the.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Line your you know, video game music is a big
part of the media world now. It is the you know,
the newest, greatest handy. It's not new anymore. It's been
around for thirty years. But some of the biggest music
budgets are in video games. Some of the most exciting
music that is written in media today is for video games.

(27:56):
So we're bringing three award winning Dynamite video game composers,
a guy who Gary Schiman and Seth Wright, and there
are all three different generations. That's what that and that
was accidental. Gary is my age. Actually i've known Gary.

(28:18):
Gary and I were in a film scoring class in
nineteen eighty one together we started our career at the
same time. We've been friends for what forty five years
and he is one of the top video game composers
in the industry. Now he'll be one guy Whitmore is
again award winning video game composer. We've had him speak

(28:41):
to our students in the past, so he was definitely
one of the first we saw. I wanted to ask
and Seth, I'm so proud of Seth. Seth was in
the first graduating class of the Beil Institute, and Seth
wanted nothing more than to be a video game composer.
He didn't want to be a TV composer, he didn't
want to be a film composer. He was dead set

(29:02):
on being a video game composer. And he has achieved
great success in the short amount of time that he's
been out there. So that the having all three of
these these gentlemen talk about their careers is going to
be so exciting. And you know, we've also carefully chosen
the moderators for this. The moderator for this is going

(29:23):
to be the gentleman who runs the video game department
at the Strong Museum of Play, which is an enormous
and very important museum here in Rochester. And they this
gentleman has forgotten more about video games than I'll ever know,
and he was very familiar with all three of these composers,

(29:46):
just a fabulous choice in this, so he will be
interviewing them. We're bringing in Conrad Pope and his wife,
Nan Schwartz, who were both premier orchestrators and aers as
well as talented composers in the industry. Conrad Pope has
was John Williams orchestrator and ironically, and again this is

(30:10):
this just happened by accident. The third concert that we're
doing is the RPO. The Rochester Philharmonic is going to
be presenting a live to picture performance of the final
Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part two,
and it concludes, you know this amazing nine parts saga
of Harry Potter. Conrad orchestrated that movie and he will

(30:35):
be on a panel Saturday afternoon and two hours later
the score that he orchestrated will be performed live. You know,
these things happened by accident. Nan his wife, also orchestrated
on that film. She's a brilliant composer and arranger herself.
And we're very delighted to host both of them, against

(31:00):
my my fervid demands that I didn't want to be
featured on a panel, they insisted that I do a
panel on music for animation because so much of my
composing career was in animation, and I, you know, built
up quite a filmography in this area. So I said, well,
then we should bring out somebody, somebody completely different. We

(31:24):
shouldn't bring another composer. So I called up a dear
friend of mine, Bamby Maway, who was the head of
Television Music for Disney Television Animation. Uh So to hear,
she was in charge of hiring all the composers that
worked on these things, including me. She was responsible for

(31:44):
hiring all the songwriters, and she was very much a
part of the creative team you know that that built this,
you know, amazing division that that has done so well
for Disney. So she's going to fly out and be
on the stage with me discussing our work together. And
I'm very very excited about having Damby come out. She's amazing,

(32:09):
amazing person. We are bringing Carter Burwell, who's a three
time Oscar dominated composer. His most popular credits, he's the
go to composer for the Cohen Brothers film. So he's
at Fargo and in three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri,

(32:32):
The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, and he has done
numerous other movies. Carol rob Roy amazing composer and a
very unique composer. He's going to be interviewed at one
point in it. We're going to discuss his work. We're

(32:53):
going to be doing a panel on AI, on artificial
intelligence and music. We're doing a panel on immersive audio,
which is a big thing now particularly in theaters with
at most and how you you know, surround yourself with
with audio and the latest. This is real cutting edge stuff.

(33:13):
It'll be really exciting to see what we what we
do on that. So we're very excited on that. And
then some of the other concerts. I mean, we're uh,
I can't believe I'm may able to even say this.
We're hosting Grammy Award winning composer trumpeter Terrence Blanchard in

(33:34):
a very neat concert featuring his film music. He's the
go to composer for Spike Lee. He's been OSCAR nominated
two times. And Terrence's is man terrences from Another Planet.
I mean, the guy is so talented, and I mean,
he could have just been fine with just being you know,

(33:55):
one of the top trumpet players in the in the world.
But but he's ventured into film scoring. He's written two
operas that the Metropolitan Opera has premiered and he's working
on a third. The guy is just remarkable, and he's
doing a very unique concert. He's only done it a
few times, so this is really special. He's bringing his quintet,

(34:16):
the e collective Fabulous Jazz Quintet that he plays in
and performing live with the Gateways Foundation Orchestra, the Gateways
Festival Orchestra, which is a wonderful organization that promotes black
musicians playing in symphony orchestras, and they do a yearly,

(34:38):
actually they do twice a year. They do a conference
here at Eastman and their conference it's wonderful. And again
these are things that just happened by accident. You know,
their last day of their conference is our first day.
So it was just perfect that we do a concert
with them, and they were delighted to to do a

(35:00):
concert with Terrence and a concert of his film music,
and so it'll be excerpts from many of his movies,
many of them Spike Lee movies with just fabulous scores
and these are all new arrangements that he's done. It'll
be a very very special evening. Then the next night

(35:20):
is read Violin. The third night is the RPO doing
Harry Potter. On Friday afternoon, we're doing a very unique
concert where if you're familiar with the movie Interstellar, the
wonderful science fiction out on with Matthew McConaughey. The score
was by Hans Zimmer and the featured voice in the
score was a big pipe organ, and it's very dramatic

(35:44):
in his use of this in the score. It's, you know,
there's just the emotion that comes from hearing a big
pipe organ. And Hans being Hans so cutting edge, he
used their real pipe organ. This was not a digital
sample of a pipe organ. He recorded a real, live,
you know, cathedral organ from from London. And the man

(36:08):
who was the organist, Roger Sayer, is coming over for
his first concert ever in the United States. We're presenting
him doing music from Interstellar on a gorgeous cathedral organ
here in Rochester. It won't be at the school, It'll
be about about a half a mile away at a
cathedral near nearby on an organ, and I mean, I

(36:32):
can't wait for this. This is going to be such
an exciting concert. Will show images from the movie while
he's playing you know, his you know, the music he
played in the movie. And then the third the third afternoon,
we're doing a very very special concert called John Williams
Reimagined where many of John's brilliant themes have been arranged

(36:56):
for a chamber ensemble flute, cello, and piano. And the
CD for this has you know, it's now in its
second edition. They it sold out and amazingly enough, they
have never performed this live in this country, so this
will be the North American premiere of doing this music live.
And John, who you know, a lot of people want

(37:18):
to perform his music and he he's you know, he's
polite about it, and he's you know, everything that he
got involved in this. He was very supportive. He didn't
do any of the arrangements. I don't want to mislead anything,
but he was very supportive of that. He met with
the players, he was very delighted by these very you know,
very much supportive of it. So the three musicians that

(37:42):
performed that CD are going coming and doing the first
ever performance in North America of it, and that will
be Saturday afternoon, just before Conrad Pope and Nan Schwartz
come out and speak. So we you know, the plan
was for people to come and just park themselves at
Eastman for three days morning, afternoon and night and and

(38:06):
just have a fun time of film and media music.
So you know, there's something for everybody. We're playing these
events to be fun. It is not a workshop for
you know, aspiring composers or people that work in the business.
That would be a that would be a different kind
of event. This is for people that love film music

(38:30):
and media music that enjoy the excitement of hearing some
behind the scenes stories and hear experiences about it. So
we're you know, we are very excited about it, and
we're looking forward to this becoming a tradition here in
Rochester and at Eastman. We look forward to doing it

(38:52):
again in the future. Everything is pointing in that direction,
so please get your tickets now. And the here's the
best thing about all this, All the panels, all the
discussions are free. They're absolutely free. They don't cost anything.
The concerts, of course, have a ticket charge to it.

(39:15):
But you know, the opportunity to hear all these wonderful
people and artists that you wouldn't otherwise get a chance
to do it in an environment that has a history.
I mean, George Eastman was very much supportive of music
in film. That was his motivation for building the Eastman
Theater over one hundred years ago, was to provide a

(39:38):
world class venue to play music live while movies played.
So it just comes full circle that we have the
opportunity to do it. I'm hoping that, you know, a
little bit of George Eastman's spirit will be in the
hall while we're doing it.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Excellent. And I can say, for one, Terrence is amazing.
In twenty twenty three, I saw him in London. I
was very lucky to hear him. Yeah, it completely blew
my mind. I mean, over the years, I've heard him
in many films, so it was an amazing thing for me.
I don't think he gets to London too often, so
those tickets were like hotcakes.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
Oh that's great, that's awesome. Yeah, he lives in New
Orleans I think most of the time is his main
home and a nice man. I've attended a masterclass that
he gave for composers very thoughtful, just a good guy.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
What unexpected stories might emerge when composers and audience's experience
scores outside a titianal theater.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Well, you know, when you see a movie and you
hear the scory, you think, oh, this all just happened,
you know, one measure after the next, he just flowed
out and everything was fine, and everybody loved it and
everybody patted each other on the back and went home.
But it rarely happens that way. You know, there's always bumps,
and you know, unexpected turns. You know, there's and I

(41:19):
love hearing stories about how composers, you know, agonized over
something and they wrote something and they played it for
the director and they didn't like it, and they wrote
something else and they didn't like that, and then they
came back a third time or a fourth time. I mean,
I've had projects where I've I've literally submitted thirteen, fourteen,

(41:40):
fifteen different versions of a queue before they signed off
on it. And it can be so frustrating and you
want to just you know, throw the phone at the
wall after you've gotten off of the you know, the
phone with him about you know, I did exactly what
you wanted me to do and now you're not liking it,
and they'll say, yeah, yeah, I thought it would be

(42:02):
the right direction, but but now I don't like it,
so do something else, and and you know, it can
be so frustrating all you know, it's rare for a
movie score to just you know, flow evenly and just
come out, you know, And you know that changes the
the you know, because it's an intangible, you know, item

(42:23):
before you hear it. And you know, we have the
technology now to be able to play a queue, we
can do muck ups, we can do demos and bring
the filmmaker into the creative process, and that helps a
lot to be able to do that. But you know,
there's it's not easy to do to do this, and

(42:46):
I think it's important to hear these stories to to
to kind of share in the trials and tribulations and
to sometimes you know, hear these stories. You know, like
I was trying to play this and my finger went
to the wrong place and it landed on this note
and boomed there came the theme, you know, and like wow,

(43:08):
you know, and you hear these scores and you think,
I can't imagine it any other way, and I also,
I love to you know, and I'm sure you the
same way when you watch a movie, particularly an older movie,
and the first time those filmmakers heard the score was
at the scoring stage. When you've got a seventy piece
orchestra playing and you're hearing, you know, the score to

(43:30):
Casablanca or Robin Hood or Gone with the Wind, or
you know, the sound of music. You're hearing it for
the first time with everybody there, and you wonder, like, gosh,
would it had been a different score had they played
mockups of it before, because you know, you know, I

(43:50):
don't want to say that every cue gets torn apart
and rehashed. I mean, I'm happy to say that. You know,
if you're good at what you do, most of what
you right is going to you know, fly through minor changes. Maybe,
you know, don't put it on the flute. I'd prefer
it on the trumpet, you know, I think the strings
are too thick there, they're changing the emotion. I would

(44:12):
just have the piano play there. I mean, things like
that are easily adjusted. The scary thing is when you're
standing in front of an orchestra, you play a cue,
you go into the booth and the filmmaker says, I
don't know how to tell you this, but I hate this.
What can you do to change it? And then it
becomes like Holy Toledo, because you music is the last

(44:35):
thing that's done on a movie before it's you know, packaged,
upped and sent out. So if things go wrong at
that point, you're in big trouble because you can never
ever miss a deadline of releasing a movie or airing
a TV show for obvious reasons. And you know, you
hear these stories of you know, movies being dubbed, know,

(45:00):
two days before it airs on TV, and you just wondered,
my god, this is why people die early in this business,
the stress involved in it. But there's also some wonderful,
happy stories and fun stories and and you know, you know,
the stories of longtime collaborations. You know, Spike Lee uses

(45:23):
Terence almost exclusively, Spielberg and John Williams, Roberts and Mechis
and uses Alan Silvestrie. You know, these kind of collaborations,
and they exist for a reason because, you know, a
composer's ability to you know, kind of almost be able
to predict what the filmmaker is wanting. And you know,

(45:47):
if a filmmaker could do all the things that a
film needs, they would do it. They you know, they
would edit it, they would they would star in it,
they would write it, they would do the makeup, they
would do the music. But obviously they can't. So if
you're able to be kind of this extension of this
particular filmmaker's creative mus then then you're you know, they're

(46:09):
going to hire you again.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Film music often sits at the crossroads of art and commerce.
How do you see the soundtrack helping to elevate the
conversation about the role of music in film today.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
That's a great question. I mean, film music, for the
longest time was kind of music's step child. I attended
USC in the seventies, which had a world class film
school and a world class music school, and the two
had nothing to do with each other. Wow, the music

(46:42):
department didn't want their their composing majors, you know, involved
in any way. There were no courses offered. And this
was the school that produced George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis,
and you know, it's still the number one film school
in the world. And I think that if that changed,

(47:06):
frankly because of John Williams because his music was one
so popular. It was orchestral, and it was so good
and intelligently written. I mean, you know, some film music
by design is very simple and and you know, because
if it wasn't, it wouldn't work right. You've got a

(47:29):
dialogue scene, you've got people talking, well, the last thing
you need is all, you know, an orchestra roaring away
with tons of notes and really loud. You know. So
sometimes the music is supposed to be very simple and
and you know, but but a lot of times that
can be some of the most challenging music to write

(47:50):
because you're you know, your artistic spirit is telling you, no,
I'm a better composer than this. I should be able
to put more elements in this. But no, that's the
quick way to get a because a filmmaker doesn't want
you to write brilliant, you know, artistic music. They want
you to write something that enhances their film. And they'll
be the first to tell you, I don't know what

(48:11):
all this stuff is going on here, but take it out.
And and so the music world, the artistic music world,
the concert music world will look at music like that
and say, you know, film music is juvenile or it,
you know, it's not as artistic and and and it's
it's two different art worlds. I mean, a concert composer

(48:34):
is expected to do something new and bring to the
table something that is uniquely them and and for you know,
either you like it or you don't. But they're they're
writing strictly for their own artistic demands. They're the the
only filter they have to you know, because usually, you know,

(48:54):
symphony will commission a composer write a piece, and the
only usually the only criteria is here's how many pieces
of this is the instrumentation, and this is how long
we want it. And other than that, it's up to
the composer to write whatever they want to write. And
it either succeeds or it doesn't, but it's what that
composer wanted. Film music is very different. You are you

(49:18):
are serving several masters, not only the filmmaker but the public,
you know, And this is what makes John so remarkable
and and and other composers, I mean Jerry Goldsmith and
Demitri Tiomkin, and Ino Morricone and Michael Giacchino and Alexander Displa.

(49:39):
These are all wonderful composers who are capable of writing compelling,
interesting and emotional music while at the same time directing
the drama of a of a film for an audience
that knows nothing about music. So it's an interesting and
unique challenge and it it has evolved where you know,

(50:03):
the token film music concert that orchestras would do, where
you might play a suite from Robin Hood, or you
might play the main title from Star Wars, and you know,
that would be it. It has been an enormous boon
to be able to do live to picture performances of
entire movies, and I'm happy to say we've done several

(50:23):
of those here at Eastman, which is very unusual for
a college music school to do that. I don't know
of any other school that does it, and we do,
you know, a couple of these a year to say,
you know, we are doing up and we fix our
film up. In early February last year we did Elf

(50:48):
and Titanic. We did Titanic Live. I mean, I have
to laugh because it's not only Titanic in name, but
in size as well. I mean to take that on
with a student orchestra, I'll be it a student orchestra
that I'll put up against pretty much any professional orchestra

(51:08):
in the world, and it was just a great event.
We've done Batman, we did La La Land, you know, huge,
huge audiences, you know, and it's great for the students
to you know, look out and see a packed audience,
you know, cheering and standing ovations. You know, it's just
so rewarding. So I think, you know, I think audiences

(51:32):
and orchestras have changed in the last twenty twenty five
years to where they really enjoy doing film music concerts.
And I have to credit John, as I said earlier,
because John's music is such a high level that orchestras
will play it and they're challenged by it, and they
he writes so well for the orchestra so intelligently. You know,

(51:56):
he is such an artist. So that has changed, I'm
happy to say.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
And lastly, you've spent your career giving music to other
people's stories, whether Disney characters, Olympic athletes, or filmmakers visions.
If someone were to score your life, what moments would
you want to capture in the music and what would
that soundtrack sound like?

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Wow, I've never been asked that question, Damian. You've got
to give me a second do they have at least
that's a very humbling question. I mean, I think it's
very important to me the quality of the person that
I work with and the quality of the person that
I am fans of. I mean, John Williams is a

(52:41):
wonderful human being if he wasn't and not all you know,
people in this business are wonderful human beings. Most of
them are, I'm happy to say, but some people are not,
you know, their their lack of humanity keeps them from
being that. You know, we're surrounded by people that aren't

(53:01):
necessarily great, wonderful people. I have no interest in working
or admiring people who are not decent people and who
are good people. And I used to think because so
much of my my composing career has been an animation,
and I you know, I wanted to be the next
John Williams. I wanted to work on big movies, and

(53:23):
you know, I wanted to work on you know, Jurassic
Park and you know iron Man, and you know, to
be able to say, yeah, I did those scores. But
a few years ago I got a letter from a
six year old, handwritten on a piece of tablet paper,

(53:46):
telling me how much he loved my music to Winnie
the Pooh and My Little Pony, and and it just
made my day. I have it framed. It's in my office.
I treasure it and I you know, you can keep
your oscars. I'll take this any day of the week.

(54:07):
So I think whoever scores the Mark Waters story, I
would hope that they would be able to be able
to talk about my heart and my love of people,
my my love of what my music can do. I
have turned down opportunities to score vicious horror slasher movies

(54:32):
because they just disturbed me. And I would never say,
you know, they should be banned or they shouldn't be
out there. I would never ever say that, but they
affect me in a way that I just you know,
when you work on a movie, you watch a scene
over and over and over and over and over again.
And I just couldn't do that. And so I'm happy.

(54:56):
You know, the list of credits that I've had, I'm
I look at it, I go, my god, how did
I end up doing such you know, wonderful projects, and
how on earth did I get here? So I hope
that they're able to convey that excellent.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
I hope they do as well, well, thank you so
much for coming on the podcast and tell them about.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
It's so nice. You're you're very special. I really appreciate
this opportunity.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Thank you, oh, thank you, thank you so much. And
hopefully because I'm in London still at the moment, I
can't get to the festival this year, but I certainly
will next year.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
It sounds we will roll out the red carpet for you, sir.
Thank you, you definitely will. So let's please stay in
Toime
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