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Screen Scoring

Session

1: 6/24/2024 - 7/7/2024

Discipline

Music

Description

This course for composers offers mentoring by industry veterans who share insights into media scoring including composing, orchestrating, virtual instruments, sample libraries, and more. Craft scoring projects with faculty guidance and critique culminating in a recording session for these compositions. The course highlights the development of crucial musical and technical skills, and equips individuals for careers in multimedia composition. This course is limited to 14 students. 

Who Should Take This Class

Composers of any level interested in learning skills for a career in media scoring.

Required Application Materials (please submit materials in a single document)

  • Personal statement: introduce yourself and explain your experience as a composer. Please list any DAW, notation, or other music software programs you use and how well you know the program (beginner, intermediate, advanced) (500 words).​
  • Portfolio: Three to five notated scores, audio files, or video files. These files should demonstrate the best of your music. We are interested in seeing your overall composing and production skills in any genre. ​Applicants must add links to their portfolio materials in their personal statement document.

Course Coordinator

Aaron Fruchtman ​(Long Beach) is a music historian and composer. His research and teaching focuses on film music. Fruchtman earned his doctorate in musicology from UC Riverside. He also holds degrees in music composition from UCR (M.M.) and the Berklee College of Music (B.M.), as well as an Advanced Studies Certificate in Music for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Southern California.

 

COURSE NUMBER/CREDITS

Undergraduate: MUSIC 420, 3 units
Graduate/Post-baccalaureate: MUSIC 620, 3 units

MATERIALS FEE

You will not pay a materials fee to Summer Arts, but you will likely need to purchase software for this course. We will provide more information soon.

WHO SHOULD APPLY

Composers and musicians who have a background in concert or popular music and are interested in learning how to compose for video games are highly encouraged to apply. However, anyone with a passion for music and video games should consider as well! It is recommended that all applying students know how to read music.

HOW TO APPLY

  1. Submit a link on YouTube or another site to one to three examples of music you have composed. PDF scores of examples may be included appropriate to the medium. 
  2. Submit/upload the materials listed in step one when you apply online by June 7, 2021.

COURSE COORDINATOR

Professor Kenneth Froelich

Guest Artists

David Spear

Michael Barry​

​Michael Barry is a composer, orchestrator, orchestrator, and musical entrepreneur with 20 years in the film industry whose credits include Beauty and The Beast, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Dr. Sleep, League of Legends, and Netflix’s Arcane. He was co-founder of Cinesamples and is currently a founding partner in Hollywood Scoring and Stratisound.

Julie Bernstein

Julie Bernstein

Julie Bernstein is a four-time Emmy-winner who has worked in animation as a composer, orchestrator, arranger, conductor, and singer. Series she has worked on include Animaniacs Reboot, The Boys: Diabolical, the original Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Histeria!, Tiny Toons Adventures, Baby Looney Toons, Make Way for Noddy, Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, and her features include Wakko’s Wish and Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars.

Steven Bernstein

Steven​ Bernstein

Steven Bernstein is a five-time Emmy-winning animation composer whose television credits include Animaniacs (old and new), The Boys: Diabolical, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Histeria!, Tiny Toon Adventures, Make Way for Noddy, Baby Looney Tunes, and Taz-Mania! His features include Wakko’s Wish, A Flintstones Christmas Carol, Scooby-Doo: Arabian Nights and Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars.

Michael Barry

Chanda Dancy

Chanda Dancy is an accomplished film, television, and classical concert composer. She is known for her work on the hit show "Lawmen: Bass Reeves," the Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and the Korean War era epic “Devotion,” which was selected for the 2022 Oscars shortlist.

Chanda Dancy

David Spear

David Spear is a composer, conductor, and pianist, who has orchestrated film scores for Airplane, Animal House, Heavy Metal, and Ghostbusters. After his Broadway debut, Spear wrote scores for three Academy Award nominated films. He composed the music for the Emmy Award winning National Geographic documentary, Surviving Everest. He has led numerous symphonies and philharmonic in recordings of his own works. In 2022, he conducted the Pacific Symphony in the West Coast premiere of The Langston Hughes Project, featuring the Ron McCurdy Quartet. He served on the faculty at Berklee College of Music, USC Thornton School of Music, and NYU. ​

 

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