Academy Awards producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today that Stephen Oremus was selected as music director for this season’s 87th Oscar ceremony. He will make his Oscar debut this year. Oremus has worked on such Broadway shows as Avenue Q, Wicked, All Shook Up, 9 to 5, The Book of Mormon and Kinky Boots. He earned two Tony Awards for Best Orchestration in 2011 and 2013. Oremus also served as the orchestra conductor and music director for Rufus Wainwright’s Carnegie Hall and London Palladium tributes to Judy Garland in 2006 and 2007. His feature film work includes arranging and producing New York, New York, sung by actress Carey Mulligan, for Steve McQueen’s 2011 drama Shame starring Michael Fassbender.
Tag: Academy Awards
Charles Bernstein Rejoins Academy Board
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that composer Charles Bernstein has rejoined the Academy’s Board of Governors after a hiatus. He joins composers Charles Fox and Arthur Hamilton as a governor for the Academy’s music branch. The Academy’s 17 branches are represented by three governors, who may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms. Terms are staggered so that each branch elects or reelects one governor each year. For the full list of elected governors, click here.
Steven Price, Steve Jablonsky, Stanley Clarke & Pharrell Williams Invited to Join the Academy
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 271 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Among the invited artists this year a number of film composers, including Steven Price (The World’s End, Attack the Block) who received his first Academy Award this year for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, Steve Jablonsky who is best known for his collaborations with Michael Bay, including the Transformers movies, as well as films such as Ender’s Game, Battleship and Gangster Squad, Stanley Clarke who scored such movies as Passenger 57, The Best Man Holiday and Boyz N the Hood and Buck Sanders (Warm Bodies) who received an Oscar nomination for The Hurt Locker.
Academy Announces Updated Campaign Regulations Affecting the Music Category
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced a number of updated regulations for how companies and individuals may market movies and achievements eligible for the 87th Academy Awards to Academy members, including significant changes that affect the music category. The regulations state that “music branch members may not contact other Music Branch members to promote the nomination of their own song in any way, including via mail, email, telephone or social media”. In addition, “music branch members may not attend any special live performances of eligible songs unless attached to a screening”. Click here for the complete award campaign regulations.
Video Highlights from the 86th Academy Awards
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and ABC have published some of the music-related highlights of the 86th Academy Awards ceremony online. Check out the acceptance speeches of Steven Price who won the Oscar for his music for Gravity and Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Bobby Lopez who won the award for the song Let It Go from Frozen after the jump. Also embedded are the live performances of the songs Let It Go by Idina Menzel, Ordinary Love by U2, Happy by Pharrell Williams and The Moon Song by Karen O. The ceremony also featured a performance of Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Pink as a tribute to The Wizard of Oz, as well as the song The Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler for the In Memoriam tribute.
Steven Price Wins Oscar for ‘Gravity’
Steven Price has won his first Academy Award in the Best Original Score category for his music for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity. The composer was also nominated for the first time. The other contenders in the category were John Williams (The Book Thief), Alexandre Desplat (Philomena), William Butler & Owen Pallett (Her) and Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks). All six nominated composers were in attendance at the awards ceremony.
In the Best Original Song category, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez received the award for the song Let It Go from Disney’s Frozen.
SCL Hosts Reception for Oscar-Nominated Composers & Songwriters
Yesterday afternoon, the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) hosted its annual reception honoring the Academy Award-nominated composers and songwriters in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song category in Beverly Hills. SCL president Ashley Irwin introduced the nominees who briefly spoke to the audience. All six nominated composers in the score category were in attendance, including Alexandre Desplat, nominated for the sixth time for his score for Stephen Frears’ Philomena, who talked about the first Oscar concert this past week and thanked Academy governors Charles Fox and Arthur Hamilton for putting together the event. William Butler and Owen Pallett, nominated for the first time for their music from Her, were joined at the reception by Arcade Fire members Win Butler and Régine Chassagne and the film’s director Spike Jonze.
Academy Celebrates Nominated Song & Scores at Oscar Concert
Last night, the Academy of the Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) presented its first-ever official Oscar concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall celebrating the nominated scores and songs of the 86th Academy Awards. The event was hosted by rapper Common and produced by Academy governors Charles Fox and Arthur Hamilton. To start off the show, Fox conducted an 80-piece orchestra consisting of studio musicians with a performance of Jerry Goldsmith’s Fanfare for Oscar. Film critic Elvis Mitchell moderated a Q&A with each of the nominated composers in the Best Original Score category before each performance.
Academy to Present Live Concert Celebrating Nominated Scores and Songs
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.
Karen O to Perform ‘The Moon Song’ from ‘Her’ on the Oscars
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.