Commentary

Bible Riots?

Ever hear of the Bible riots? The Baptist War? With America currently in religious flux, there may be no better time to look back at our country’s religious history. “Free Exercise; America’s Story of Religious Liberty” takes a deep at the difficult path to freedom of religion and conscience, from colonial times into the present, by examining events and stories that cov this remarkable national journey.

From America’s founding, to the rise of Black Churches, Mormons, Irish Catholics, Jewish, and Muslim immigrants illustrate how different ideas of individual and collective religious freedom come into conflict with existing […]

By |November 15th, 2023|Commentary|0 Comments|

National Symphony Orchestra


Growing up in the D.C. area, I was pretty fortunate to be able to hear a lot of live music – everything from rock to jazz to country, to the amazing National Symphony Orchestra, which I heard countless times. To me, the NSO was as good as it got.

So imagine my surprise when I recently got a call from the NSO, asking if they could perform one of my compositions (“Our Wings Have Caught The Wind”) at their Labor Day concert. To say I was honored was an understatement.

The concert was […]

Pocketful of Miracles

There are countless tragic stories associated with the Holocaust; “A Pocketful of Miracles” is a new documentary about a small ray of hope that shone through this unbelievably dark time. The film tells a story of a young brother and sister separated in the concentration camps, barely surviving, their tearful reunion after the war, and the incredible and unselfish lives that they built in the following years.

I was honored to be asked to compose the music for this amazing film. You can […]

Nashville Symphony

Because very few of my compositions are for full orchestra (most of my music is for film or television these days), I was really honored when the Nashville Symphony Orchestra chose to open their televised July 4 concert with a piece I’d composed, called “Our Wings Have Caught The Wind”.

Originally commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony, the piece has now been performed by a number of orchestras, but it’s always a thrill to hear my music played live.

If you have a few minutes, I’d be pleased if you could watch a short video of the work. The link is

Ok, I give up…

Every few months I send out an email describing some project that I’ve just composed music for. Although I’m currently working on some great projects, I thought I’d use this time instead to let you know that I’m officially giving up.

Here’s what I mean –

A lot of my work over the years has been creating music for film and television. For some reason, I’ve never been wild about putting the video samples on my website. I guess I preferred that people listen to the music that I’ve created, instead of watching the video that I created the music for. […]

So this is new…

Most of the time that I write a blog I’m letting people know about a TV or film project for which I’ve composed music. That’s still (by far) the majority of work that I do.

But sometimes a project doesn’t have the time or budget to use all original music. A case in point is Discovery’s “Murder In The Heartland” series. Created by Ample Entertainment in LA and now in its fourth season, the shows are done well, done quickly, and done with limited budgets.

For this series, the directors/editors described to me […]

By |January 19th, 2022|Commentary|0 Comments|

And now for something completely different…


Most of the time that I blog, I’m usually promoting some larger project that I’ve composed music for. And while I’m fortunate to be scoring several full length films these days (including a multi-hour project for Netflix), I thought you might be interested in a completely different kind of project I just scored.

“Elijah and George” is an upcoming dramatic film about a young boy during the Revolutionary War, and his relationship to George Washington. Scheduled to begin shooting later this year, the movie is expected to premiere in 2021. […]

“A More or Less Perfect Union”


Whichever side of the political “fence” you may be on, there’s never been a better time to take a look at the US Constitution, and what it really says.

This coming January, “A More or Less Perfect Union” premieres on PBS. The three-hour series provides an unusual insight into the US Constitution. No matter how well you think you know this document, you’re in for at least a few surprises.

Click here to listen a sample montage from the score – it’s less than three minutes long, and should give […]

By |September 18th, 2019|Commentary|0 Comments|

“The Spy Behind Home Plate”

One of the most dramatic spy stories of World War II is a story that very few people know. Moe Berg was a famous baseball player who toured Europe before and during the second world War with a traveling baseball team. What virtually no one knew was that this Jewish baseball hero was secretly a spy for the Allies, given the almost impossible job of infiltrating the atomic bomb development programs in Japan and Germany.

“The Spy Behind Home Plate” is a film with plenty of suspense, twists, and turns, and […]

Yikes!

I had a chat recently with a potential client, who told me that because I’d usually posted music samples from “big-time projects” that I’d scored, that must be the only kind work I was interested in. Yikes.

Ok, I admit it – I do enjoy working on bigger projects, but the truth is, I love composing music for all kinds of work.

As an example of a “smaller” project, I recently created an opening theme for “In Principle”, a new weekly news show for just one PBS station in D.C. (WETA), which premieres […]

PBS Premieres an unusual Docudrama

On the day after Christmas, at 8 pm (check local listings) PBS will be premiering a docudrama about a virtually unknown story that forever changed the history of the world. Almost 800 years ago, St. Francis of Assisi defied his superiors, walked into the enemy camp and started a friendship with an Islamic sultan that helped bring an end to the Crusades.

“The Sultan and the Saint”is a new film that tells this unbelievable – and true – story. In a time when religious wars were normal, two men of […]

By |December 21st, 2017|Commentary|0 Comments|

“Hidden Secrets of Florida Springs”


I recently composed a music score for a small, but pretty important documentary about the health of freshwater springs in Florida. But if you’re not from Florida, is this issue all that important to you? Turns out, maybe it is… Florida is home to more fresh water springs than any other region in the world, and the problems occurring there (and the proposed solutions) could well have global effects.

I was honored to compose the music for “Hidden Secrets of Florida Springs”, not only because of the importance of the subject […]

By |October 13th, 2017|Commentary|0 Comments|

“Going The Distance: Journeys of Recovery”


One of the things that I love as a music composer is the chance to be dropped into a completely different world every time I score a new project.

Recently, I was dropped into the world of traumatic brain injuries when I scored “Going The Distance: Journeys of Recovery” (PBS), a story of four survivors who take us inside the experience of these injuries, to reveal their personal stories of devastation, heroism, and hope. Learning about these four gave me one more reason to love what I do for a living.
[…]

By |October 12th, 2017|Commentary|0 Comments|

“Liberty & Slavery”

So, here’s a pretty basic question about America’s founding fathers. How could these men, who believed that “all men are created equal”, own slaves?

“Liberty & Slavery: The Paradox of America’s Founding Fathers” is a new PBS documentary that examines this amazing paradox. The film travels back in time to better understand the men responsible for America’s greatest victories—
and most heinous sins.

It was a joy – and a struggle – to compose the score for this film, trying to capture the conflicting ideas that attempted to coexist. To hear a […]

“The Sultan and the Saint”

So, here’s a little-known story I’d never heard – that changed the course of history. Almost 800 years ago, St. Francis of Assisi walked into the enemy camp and started a friendship with the Islamic sultan Al-Kamil – a friendship that helped bring an end to the Crusades.

“The Sultan and the Saint” is a new film that tells this unbelievable – and true – story. In a time when religious wars were normal, two men of different faiths defied the expectations of their time, and changed the course of history.
[…]

By |February 15th, 2017|Commentary|0 Comments|

Original Music for Snooping?

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Original music for snooping? Ok, not “snooping” exactly, but “investigating”. 😉

You may know the name Michelle Malkin – she’s a controversial investigative reporter that is hosting a brand new tv series – “Michelle Malkin Investigates”. I was asked to compose all of the music for this show, which premieres on CRTV. It was a lot of fun to do, and gave me an opportunity to create music that’s a bit difrerent from the orchestral scores I’ve been composing lately (which I also love!).

If you have about 20 seconds, […]

By |December 15th, 2016|Commentary|0 Comments|

The hardest music I’ve ever had to write…

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Ok, I admit it – I love my job as a music composer. Over the years, I’ve been privileged to write music for hundreds of enjoyable projects, films, tv shows, records, etc. But recently, I was asked to compose the score for a film for the Holocaust Museum in Aushwitz, Poland – a museum honoring the more than one million people who were exterminated at this death camp in World War II.

Watching this horrific footage hour after hour, day after day as I tried to compose the […]

Brilliant Musicians

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One of the things I love about my job as a composer is the chance to work with lots of different musicians. Over the years, I’ve worked with everyone from the London Symphony to indie bands, and everything in-between.

But for a recent film score (“Iran In The Bible”), I had the chance to hire and work with brilliant Iranian musicians, using a half-dozen instruments I’d never used before in a score. These musicians were incredibly gracious, and willing to work at getting the sound I wanted without being able […]

A Deep Passion for – what?

Adam Smith Title
If you’re like me, you have a deep passion for economics and economic theory. 😉 Just kidding – I don’t have a clue about any of this stuff, or how it affects me. And yet almost two hundred years ago, an economist named Adam Smith devised economic theories that describe the cost of almost everything we buy and sell today.

This month, PBS is premiering the two-hour special “Morality and Markets – The Real Adam Smith” (check your local PBS station for air times). It’s a pretty fascinating […]

Music for Ballerinas, and the Black Panther Party…

Best of Indies Screen Shot
I recently had the chance to compose a series of music pieces for the new PBS series “The Best of Indies”, premiering in 2016. As if often the case with PBS, this project gave me the chance to create music in a number of different styles. Gotta’ love PBS!

Watch the opening segment HERE.

By |November 23rd, 2015|Commentary|0 Comments|

New PBS Series This Fall

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One of the things that I love in my job as music composer is the chance I get to write in lots of different styles. As you’d guess, each project I work on usually focuses on one particular kind of music.

But “Chaplains” – the new 2-hour PBS series that I just scored – gave me the chance to create music in a lot of different genres. Because chaplains themselves are involved in so many different arenas (prisons, hospitals, government, military, businesses, etc.), I had the chance to compose in […]

By |September 14th, 2015|Commentary|0 Comments|

Arranging and Producing for Blues legend Keb’ Mo’

I recently had the honor of arranging/producing a song for blues legend Keb’ Mo’, for a new exhibit that will be opening at the Grammy Museum this fall.

Keb’ Mo’ wrote a simple 12-bar blues song, called “Wrote You A Letter”. I then took his vocal track, and added three live drum tracks, several electric and acoustic bass parts, electric pianos, acoustic pianos, organs, tons of guitar tracks, and even harmonicas.

Why so many parts? Glad you asked! ? The idea here is that visitors to the museum will be able to go into a booth where they can create their […]

Inside the mind of a befuddled composer…

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Recently, one of my clients asked me to score his new 90-minute PBS documentary about the recent uprisings in Egypt. We decided that musically it would be best to use real Egyptian musicians and musical styles. A great idea. Just one small problem – I’d never worked with Egyptian music or musicians before. Ever. Didn’t even know for sure what Egyptian instruments were. I was – befuddled.

Fast forward a few weeks – I’m in a recording studio with five incredible (and patient) Egyptian musicians – the Egyptian band “Saltanah”. For […]

Sitars or Guitars?

India Awakes
Just finished composing music for a PBS film called “India Awakes”, which focuses on some pretty amazing changes in that country as the caste system finally starts to disappear.

Creating the music gave me a chance to play with lots of ethnic instruments, combine “traditional” Indian sounds with more current Asian music, and come up with my own ideas – all in all, a lot of fun! You can hear a short montage from the music score and several music cues by clicking

Article in “Style” Magazine

Style Article Photo BETTER 12:14

There was a nice article in “Style” Magazine recently about my work. Thought it was worthy of a post… 😉 Click below to read the full article.

Aural Fixation | Music | Style Weekly

By |January 12th, 2015|Commentary|0 Comments|

Composing Original Music Not for Ken Burns

Underwater Bloom pic
So in my last post (below), I had a link to the music I composed for the Ken Burns PBS “Roosevelt” series trailers. I really enjoy doing that kind of music, but this time, I thought I’d provide a link to something completely different. I just finished creating music and sound effects for a tv spot created by European group “Protect Our Heritage”. The spot does an amazing job of describing the […]

Composing Original Music for Ken Burns

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Ken Burns is probably the best known documentary filmmaker in existence. His films, including “The Civil War”, “Baseball”, “Lewis and Clark”, have forever changed the way documentaries are made. Although Burns usually uses historical music in his films, I was honored to be asked to create original music for the trailer for his upcoming series “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” a 14-hour film that debuted Sept. 14 on PBS.

It was a bit tricky composing music […]

New Music Composed for OmniMusic in New York

OmniMusic Logo
In continuing my relationship with OmniMusic Library in New York, I’ve created nine new music cues for their new CD. Entitled “Wide Angle” the CD features panoramic, sweeping, majestic orchestral scores.

You can hear samples from the new CD HERE.

Enjoy!

Wait 10 Seconds…

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One of the things that I love about my job as a music composer is the chance I have to get involved in so many different musical styles. Seems like each project I get involved in is an opportunity try a new musical feel.

But a film that I just finished scoring, “Water Blues, Green Solutions” (for PBS) was a bit different. Instead of just one musical “feel” for this score, I needed to create a ton of different musical styles for the same film […]

By |November 20th, 2013|Commentary|0 Comments|