The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will present the first-ever live “Oscar Concert” celebrating this year’s nominated scores and songs on Thursday, February 27, at 8 p.m. at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles. The program will feature an 80-piece orchestra performing suites from each of the nominated original scores, conducted by their composers:
William Butler and Owen Pallett – Her
Alexandre Desplat – Philomena
Thomas Newman – Saving Mr. Banks
Steven Price – Gravity
John Williams – The Book Thief
The composers will also participate in a brief onstage conversation with film critic and radio host Elvis Mitchell about creating their scores. Read the rest of this entry »
The Guild of Music Supervisors announced the nominations for its 4th Annual awards ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday, February 26, at Mack Sennett Studios in Hollywood. The awards will recognize outstanding Music Supervisors in 14 categories representing Motion Picture, Television, Games, Trailers and Advertising. Below are the nominations for some of the major categories. For the full list of nominations, visit the 
Photek is composing the music for the upcoming Fox drama Gang Related. The show is created by Chris Morgan (Fast Five, Wanted) and stars Ramon Rodriguez, RZA, Sung Kang, Inbar Lavi, Terry O’Quinn, Shantel VanSanten, Cliff Curtis and Jay Hernandez. The series follows a rising star in Los Angeles’ elite Gang Task Force who teams up with a longtime Task Force member to take on the city’s most dangerous gangs, including one he has an allegiance to. Morgan is also executive producing the 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine Entertainment production with Scott Rosenbaum (The Shield, Chuck), Brian Grazer (24, Friday Night Lights, A Beautiful Mind) and Francie Calfo (The Great Escape, The Playboy Club). Allen Hughes (The Book of Eli, From Hell) directed and served as an executive producer on the pilot episode. 
Oscars show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today that singer-songwriter Karen O will, for the first time, perform the Academy Award-nominated original song The Moon Song for a global television audience on the Oscars on March 2, 2014. The song from Spike Jonze’s romantic drama Her starring Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams and Rooney Mara is one of the four nominated titles in the Best Original Song category. It was previously announced that all the three other songs (Happy from Despicable Me 2, Let It Go from Frozen and Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) will also be performed at the event. Karen O who is the lead singer of the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs and has previously written songs for Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is Oscar-nominated for the first time. 
Milan Records will release the official soundtrack album for the sci-fi thriller Under the Skin. The album features the film’s original music composed by Mica Levi from the experimental pop music band Micachu and the Shape. The soundtrack will be released on April 1, 2014. Under the Skin directed by Jonathan Glazer (Birth, Sexy Beast) is based on a novel by Michael Faber and stars Scarlett Johansson as an alien disguised as a mesmerizing woman who scours remote highways and backroads for human prey. The film premiered at last year’s Venice and Toronto Film Festivals and was picked up by A24 Films for domestic distribution. 
Oscars show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today that U2 will perform the original song Ordinary Love from Justin Chadwick’s biographical drama Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom starring Idris Elba at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony on March 2, 2014. The performance will be the first time the band will perform the song live. Ordinary Love is one of the four nominated songs in the Best Original Song category. It was previously announced that Pharrell Williams will also be performing his nominated song Happy from Despicable Me 2 and Idina Menzel will perform Let It Go from Frozen. The soundtrack for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which includes the nominated song 
Lakeshore Records will release a soundtrack album for the romantic comedy Girl on a Bicycle. The album features the film’s original music composed by Craig Richey (Friends with Money, Lovely & Amazing, The September Issue). The soundtrack will be released digitally on February 25, 2014 and is now available for pre-order on 
Klaus Badelt is set to reunite with director Werner Herzog on the upcoming biographical drama Queen of the Desert. The film written and directed by Herzog stars Nicole Kidman as Gertrude Bell, the iconic explorer, writer, archeologist and attaché for the British Empire who helped to catalyze the formation of the Middle East at the dawn of the 20th century. Damian Lewis, Robert Pattinson and James Franco are co-starring. Nick Raslan is producing the Palmyra Films and Benaroya Pictures production with Cassian Elwes (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, The Paperboy) and Michael Benaroya (Lawless, The Words, Margin Call). Badelt has previously collaborated with Herzog on such films as Rescue Dawn, Invincible and the documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga. 
La-La Land Records has released a new soundtrack album for the 1996 action thriller Escape from L.A. directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, Steve Buscemi and Cliff Robertson. The album features the film’s original music by Shirley Walker (Final Destination, Willard, Memoirs of an Invisible Man) and John Carpenter (Halloween, Assault on Precint 13). The expanded release features the film’s score, including cues that were not used in the final version of the Paramount Pictures production. The limited edition CD is now available to order on the 