John Frizzell

About

Official Site: http://www.johnfrizzell.com/

John Frizzell has demonstrated an ability to transcend film genres when scoring a project. He has created scores as varied as the dark and violent Alien Resurrection, the quirky off-beat music for the cult classic Office Space, the epic sounds of Gods and Generals and the gentle melodies of the intimate period drama The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. He has collaborated with DMX's team on the score to Cradle 2 the Grave, composed for the Looney Tunes characters in the short film The Wizzard of Ow, and created the plaintive jazz score behind James Franco's Golden Globe winning performance in James Dean.

Born in New York City, Frizzell began his music career early, singing in the chorus of the Paris Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera Company. As a teenager he played guitar in rock bands, and later became focused on Jazz, a passion that led him to pursue a formal musical education at the University of Southern California School of Music as well as the Manhattan School of Music. It was during his college years that Frizzell met his mentor, guitar legend Joe Pass. It was through Pass that Frizzell discovered his calling as a composer.

After college Frizzell worked for acclaimed producer/vibraphonist Michael Mainieri, who owned a Synclavier, the first digital music workstation, and Frizzell became a master synthesist. This skill led him to work with Academy Award winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, for whom Frizzell provided orchestrations to Oliver Stone's landmark mini-series Wild Palms. Re-locating to Los Angeles, Frizzell was introduced to James Newton Howard, who championed him and composed the themes for Frizzell's first two feature films, The Rich Man's Wife and Dante's Peak.

Known to experiment with evolving music technology in his film scores, Frizzell has utilized cutting edge devices and software to create a fluid, collaborative and creative process while still incorporating classical orchestral writing. Recently, he collaborated to revamp the score page in Apple Computer’s flagship program Logic Pro, enabling a much more intuitive approach to orchestral composition. His orchestral mock-ups, a great asset to the post-production process, are often used instead of temp score. Frizzell is an advocate of featuring soloists in scores, and has featured jazz great Jack Sheldon, violin virtuoso Mark O'Connor, Chieftans member Paddy Maloney and Sean and Sara Watkins, members of the Grammy winning band Nickel Creek. In addition to scoring for film, Frizzell recently co-composed a song with Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins for Watkins' upcoming solo album.

A proponent for film music and film music issues, Frizzell serves on the Executive Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, instructs graduate students at USC Thornton School of Music, and is the Honorary President of the International Film Music Conference in Ubeda, Spain.

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