The IFMCA is delighted to have welcomed two new members into the IFMCA in 2018 and 2019: Mogens Skaaning Høegsberg and Yavar Moradi.
Mogens is from Denmark. Mogens bought his first film score in 1990 at the age of 13, and began writing about film music in 2000 for a now long defunct website. In 2005 he co-founded the Danish language webzine Planet Pulp where he also serves as webmaster and editor in chief. As such, over the past 12 years he has edited more than 2200 reviews and articles, focusing on films, film music, books, comic books, video games etc., having written almost 800 himself (200 of which are film scores). Film music was an integral part of Planet Pulp since its inception, initially with a focus on music from horror films, science fiction and fantasy, but within the last couple of years with a broad outlook without editorial limitations to film genres. Mogens has contributed liner notes to two releases from Danish film music label PlantSounds and hopes to do more in the future. Professionally, he works as an archaeologist. Whether or not this has anything to do with Raiders of the Lost Ark being one of his favourite film scores is a mystery, even to himself. He is a father of three, aged 0-8, and thus constantly sleep deprived. This does not improve his driving, but works wonders for his sense of humour.
Yavar is co-founder and co-host of The Goldsmith Odyssey, a podcast begun in early 2018 dedicated to the thorough chronological exploration of every extant work by the incredibly prolific Jerry Goldsmith, his favorite composer. In addition he produces a side series of Odyssey Interviews, in-depth one-on-one conversations with composers, conductors, and other film music luminaries, most of whom knew Jerry personally. Raised on a collection of old movies (especially classic westerns and swashbucklers) his Persian father taped off TV in the 80s, Yavar was always drawn to the music even before he came to recognize the names and styles of Alfred Newman, Miklós Rózsa, Roy Webb, Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, or Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Soon after he expanded his interest to all eras of film music, and art music in general — his favorite composers for the concert hall are Jean Sibelius, Joseph Joachim Raff, Camille Saint-Saëns, Samuel Barber, and Dmitri Shostakovich, the latter of which of course also wrote much great film music. A graduate of St. John’s College (the “Great Books” school”), Yavar received rare approval to write his senior paper on a great film — Lonely Are the Brave — with special emphasis on the score by Jerry Goldsmith. In a professional capacity he has worked for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Santa Fe Opera, and Santa Fe Desert Chorale, as well as spending two years as manager of Joel’s Classical Shop (now Classical Music of Spring), the last independent classical music shop in North America.
Please visit our member’s section for more detailed biographies.