The International Film Music Critics Association is honored to present the 2011 IFMCA Special Award to composer Christopher Lennertz on behalf of all those who contributed to the creation of A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project.
The IFMCA strongly felt that this impressive and important charitable effort was worthy of special recognition for the groundbreaking collaborative efforts of the Los Angeles-based film music community, not to mention the outstanding musical content the Symphony itself. IFMCA members Jon Broxton and Oscar Flores were on hand to formally make the presentation to Lennertz at his refurbished Sonic Fuel Studios facility in El Segundo, California.
The Symphony of Hope is a musical fundraising project which was originally designed to help the people of Haiti in their desperate time of need, after the devastating earthquake which decimated the Caribbean nation in January 2010. Responding to the nation’s need for help, Lennertz led a collaboration between 25 of Hollywood’s leading composers and over 100 musicians, orchestrators, copyists and industry professionals to create the symphony. The idea behind the symphony is that, building from an original Haitian melody, each composer contributes an additional 8-32 bars of music to the piece and then passes it along to the next composer, symbolizing the way that one lending hand passes on to another lending hand.
The 80-minute Symphony was recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California, in March 2011. Conductor Lucas Richman led a 90-piece orchestra and a 60-piece choir made up of some of Los Angeles’s finest musicians, with vocalists Lisbeth Scott and Carmen Twillie and multi-instrumentalist George Doering providing special solo performances. The music itself was written by Nathan Barr, Tyler Bates, Jeff Beal, Christophe Beck, Bruce Broughton, George S. Clinton, Elia Cmiral, Don Davis, John Debney, Randy Edelman, Andrew Gross, Dave Grusin, Marvin Hamlisch, David Kitay, Lennertz, Deborah Lurie, Lisbeth Scott, Pete Seibert, Theodore Shapiro, Ed Shearmur, John Swihart, Brian Tyler, Michael Wandmacher, Tim Wynn and Christopher Young.
The album was released in the summer of 2011, all the sales from which continue to go to a nonprofit organization, Hands Together, which is devoted to educating, inspiring and encouraging people to understand the importance of responding to the needs of the poor and disadvantaged, and has been instrumental in establishing schools, orphanages, nutrition and feeding programs, medical clinics, sustainable-development projects, and other important infrastructures in disaster-hit regions.
A live concert performance of the symphony is planned for August 3rd 2012 at 8:00 at the Grand Performances Outdoor Amphitheater on California Plaza in downtown Los Angeles.
Massachusetts native Christopher Lennertz is himself a 2-time IFMCA nominee, having been nominated for Best Video Game Score in 2007 for Warhawk and Best Comedy Score in 2010 for his score for Vampires Suck. He attended the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Academy Award-winner Elmer Bernstein, and first came to prominence as a composer in the video game industry, contributing memorable music to such projects as Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, Medal of Honor: European Assault and Gun. Amongst his subsequent big screen credits are such hit films as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Meet the Spartans, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Horrible Bosses and Hop.
For further details about the Symphony of Hope please visit http://www.haitisymphony.com. Please also visit http://filmmusiccritics.org/2011/03/ifmca-supports-a-symphony-of-hope-the-haiti-project/ for the IFMCA’s coverage of this event.
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