On September 27, BMI hosted the SCL’s Second Annual Nashville Music Creators Conference, which is dedicated to celebrating music for visual media while educating aspiring composers and songwriters. The “Composer Conversations,” held at BMI’s Nashville office on Music Row, featured discussions with three renowned composers sharing insight into their craft, careers, and the inspiration behind their most recent scores.
BMI’s VP of Creative, Film, TV & Visual Media, Tracy McKnight, moderated an engaging discussion with Ryan Lott of Son Lux. They delved into the creative process of Lott’s work on acclaimed projects like Everything Everywhere All At Once and his latest film score in The Greatest Hits. McKnight also moderated a panel with Rob Simonsen, a three-time Emmy Award-winning composer whosecredits include major films such as The Whale, 500 Days of Summer, It Ends with Us, and Deadpool and Wolverine, the highest grossing film of 2024. Simonsen offered a behind-the-scenes look at his score for the blockbuster, as well as creating a new arrangement of Madonna’s iconic song “Like a Prayer – Choir Version from Deadpool & Wolverine” which is featured in a key moment of the film. The audience heard about Simonsen’s contributions to film music and his work on Postcard from Earth, the first film to debut in the Las Vegas Sphere.
The SCL’s President, Ashley Irwin, led an insightful discussion with Carlos Rafael Rivera, the three-time Emmy Award-winning composer behind Lessons in Chemistry and Netflix’s Griselda. The exchange analyzed Rivera’s career and music, enhanced by video clips and sound bites from his various projects to demonstrate his creative process. To see Rivera’s recent interview with BMI, where he revealed how he went from an accountant to an award-winning composer and his creative process for scoring, including his recent project Lessons In Chemistry, click here.
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