The IFMCA is delighted to announce that six new members have been accepted into the Association in 2013 – Ley Bricknell of Radio Nowhere (UK), Eleni Mitsiaki of Kinetophone and City Lights (Greece), Johannes Ruckstuhl of Film Score Monthly and CamFM (UK), Kaya Savas of Film.Music.Media (USA), Asier G. Senarriaga of BSO Spirit (Spain), and Stefanos Tsarouchas of Cinématographe (Germany)
Ley, a lifelong film and movie music enthusiast and collector of vinyl soundtracks, has spent her professional life in publishing and is currently a Sales & Marketing Director for an American publisher in the arts sector. She has also worked in radio for over 20 years, in managerial, broadcasting and training roles. Ley also writes and presents a monthly movie music show called Filmic that has been on air since 2009. It was the music of John Barry that was to blame for Ley’s obsession with film scores and in 1998 she contributed to the book John Barry A Life In Music. Ley regularly reviews soundtracks on her blog.
Eleni studied Musicology in the Music Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki unanimously awarded her Piano Diploma with honors. She is a graduate of Advanced Theory, with degrees in Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue, Orchestration and Music Composition. She has worked as editor in chief for the classicalmusic.gr portal and has also been a music editor for Muzine, SONIK, Project Amoeba, Pepper music magazines, avopolis.gr. music e-zine and movieworld.gr. film e-zine. Mesmerized by silent films and the idea of creating an overall musical world for each film and an audiovisual result that you couldn’t have heard back in the silent era, she has been dealing with contemporary practices for their musical re-scoring (she has worked as music editor and compiler of silent film screenings for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Silent Film Festival at Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens, Greece) and has given lectures, such as “Silent Films and Music Accompaniment” and “History of Soundtrack”. Since 2008, she is devoted to spreading the love for film music and discovering new film composers, through her personal 2-hour radio show City Lights (weekly on air via innersound-radio.com) and her website Kinetophone, which features her latest articles, reviews and interviews.
Johannes has been listening to film music since childhood, initially falling in love with John Williams’ Harry Potter and Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings scores. After writing film and soundtrack reviews on his personal website for several years, he joined “Film Score Monthly” in 2012 as a regular reviewer, contributing several pieces for each issue. He also hosts a weekly radio programme devoted to film music titled “Composing for Picture.” The show is broadcast on CamFM, on terrestrial and also available worldwide via online streaming. Further experience includes seats on film and film music juries at the “Cork Film Festival” and the “Watersprite Film Festival,” as well as contributing pieces on film music to a number of other publications in the UK. Johannes is currently in his final year of study for a degree in English Literature at the University of Cambridge.
Kaya was surrounded by film and film music since he discovered it at the age of 9. He became enthralled by the notion of music and image working together. The first movie he ever saw was Fantasia, and that could explain a lot. In 2009 Kaya founded Film.Music.Media after being a freelance film critic for several years for sites like MovieWeb.com. Since the launch of F.M.M Kaya has written hundreds of reviews and has interviewed more than 100 prolific composers. Kaya graduated from Towson University in 2009 with a BS in Electronic Media & Film and moved to Los Angeles a year later where he currently lives. Besides running Film.Music.Media he is a Digital Assets Specialist contracted at Walt Disney Studios with Bakers Man Productions. Kaya is also an independent filmmaker as well as an avid photographer. To help spread the love and appreciation of film music he occasionally organizes composer signings and covers the red carpet for film premieres and award gatherings.
Asier is a member of the Bsospirit Association, film music reviewer, writerand interviewer for Bsospirit.com, one of the more well-known Spanish websites about soundtracks. He has collaborated with printed magazines like Rosebud and Hobb’s Lane, and with the International Film Music Festival City of Úbeda, now currently being celebrated in Córdoba (Spain). He fell in love with film music at a very early age when he discovered the magic of a great symphonic melody during the early eighties, and since then music became the oxygen of his life. His musical interests are wide and eclectic, from the musical wonders of the Golden & Silver Ages to the modern and electronic angle, not forgetting Jazz, Celtic or Ethnic music, or the impressive and unforgettable works of such titans as Miklós Rózsa, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini , Erich Wofgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, James Horner, Basil Poledouris, James Newton Howard, Danny Elfman, Christopher Young, Michael Giacchino, or John Ottman.
Stefanos war born 1963 in East-Germany to Greek parents. His interest in film music began when he recorded the title song of “Daniel Boone” on his parents’ tape recorder. In the mid 1970s his family moved to West-Berlin. Stefanos was hooked once again on film music, after watching “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977). He was amazed by the “musical” conversation between the humans and the mother ship. Stefanos studied business administration and computer science. He is the editor-in-chief of Cinématographe at Berlin’s radio station 88vier. The program features a mix of film and film music reviews, interviews with directors and composers. Stefanos is a member of the German film critics association (VDFK), a subsidiary of the international FIPRESCI organization.
Congratulations, and welcome to all the new members!