Composer, Arranger, Orchestrator and Author Andy Hill to Lead Two-Day Score-Com Seminar June 15-16 in Nashville

By Chuck Whiting

MCAU Editor

          NASHVILLE -- Internationally known film composer, arranger, orchestrator, author and educator Andy Hill will provide insights on composing music for film during the Nashville Composers Association's annual Score-Com Seminar from June 15-16 (Saturday-Sunday) in Nashville.

        

         "Goodbye, Hollywood... Hello World: The Expanding Sphere of Media Music," which will occur from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., is expected to draw up to 50 emerging and professional composers to The Steel Mill in north Nashville for two full days of training.

         Attendees will attend morning sessions hosted by The Sync Center with insights from leading music industry professionals on the modern sync world, including prices, processes, practices and studies. Sunday's session will conclude with a Netflix Pitch Session.

          Composers will re-assemble for afternoon sessions with Hill to learn about national and regional opportunities and hear examples from breakout composers such as Keefus Ciancia ("Killing Eve"), Daniel Hart ("Strange Angel"), and Keegan DeWitt ("Gemini"). Former Disney and Dreamworks Music Executive Todd Homme will join Hill for a special discussion and presentation on Sunday. 

         All Score-Com Symposium attendees will receive a complimentary Film-Com laminate with the opportunity to attend film industry business seminars, a VIP kick-off reception, and a special networking event on Sunday night.

         "We are thrilled to have the legendary Andy Hill as our workshop leader for the annual Score-Com' Symposium," said Geoff Koch, president of the Nashville Composers Association. "Attendees will gain access to his decades of professional scoring experience, including his time as vice president for music production at Walt Disney Studios."

         Tuition for Score-Com's two-day symposium is $55 for NCA members and $85 for non-members. Individuals must register by June 7 to receive a free Film-Com conference laminate. The Steel Mill is located at 10 Quality Way in Nashville.

         To register, visit http://nashvillecomposers.org/product/score-com-2019/. To learn more about the Nashville Composers Association, visit http://www.NashvilleComposers.org. 

         Participants for The Sync Center's morning sessions will include North American Publishing Supervisor Ted Goldthorpe, Sony Sync Executive Bill Goff, Sync Center Head John Pisciotta, and Bulletproof Sync Licensing Executive Geoff Sanderson.

Andy Hill

         Andy Hill was born in Chicago and educated at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. From 1987-1996, during the period now referred to as the Disney Renaissance, he served as vice-president of music production for The Walt Disney Studios (division), overseeing music production on a roster of films which included "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Sister Act," and working closely with composers and songwriters such as Alan Menken and Hans Zimmer. Films for which Hill supervised music under the aegis of the Disney music department and its music chief, Chris Montan, earned nine Academy Awards in the categories of Best Original Score and Best Original Song for a Motion Picture. Subsequent to his term at Disney, Hill opened Andy Hill Film + Music under the auspices of Modern Music and supervised projects which included "Message In A Bottle," "Ed Wood," "James and the Giant Peach" and "Happy Feet," winning a Grammy Award in 2000 as producer of the Best Musical Album for "Children for Elmo In Grouchland."

         From 2006-2011, Hill directed the graduate program in Music Composition for the Screen at Columbia College Chicago. His students have earned music credit on films such as "Life of Pi," "How To Train Your Dragon," and "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" and found work with such notable composers as John Powell, Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna, Johnny Klimek, and Javier Navarrete. In the fall of 2011, Hill was engaged to prepare and oversee the launch of graduate composition programs, including film scoring and electronic music production, at Berklee Valencia, the international extension of the Berklee College of Music, with classes commencing in September 2012. The campus is located in the Palau de les Arts, part of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies designed by visionary architect Santiago Calatrava in Valencia, Spain. Following matriculation of the first class of Berklee degree candidates and a pilot semester, he spent an additional six months in Spain and Morocco working on a portfolio of songs with an enigmatic producer known only as The Old Guitarist. In September 2013, Hill relocated to Belgium to take a post as executive soundtrack producer and director of international business development for Galaxy Studios and the Scoring Flanders initiative, with the goal of bringing more high-level film scoring to the Flanders region and the musical stewardship of the Brussels Philharmonic. Concurrently, he launched Cinemuse VOF as a company under Belgian law, for music supervision and scoring services within the EU. In late 2015, Cinemuse, and Hill, relocated to Nashville, Tennessee.

         Hill is a member of the adjunct faculty and an industry advisor to the Masters Program in Scoring for Film and Visual Media at Pulse College Dublin, a division of Windmill Lane Studios, and a member of the advisory board for Pingtrax (Musimap), a Belgian music search engine utilized by scholars, archivists, media producers and music supervisors. His comprehensive study of landmark film scores, Scoring the Screen: The Secret Language of Film Music, has been acquired for a Spring 2017 print publication by the Hal Leonard Corporation. About the book, Conrad Pope, celebrated orchestrator for John Williams, Alexandre Desplat, and Howard Shore, among others said, “If you have any interest in what music means in film, you must read this book.”