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Well, I met and got a signed picture from John Carpenter this past August at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in Pasadena, so I think that counts as meeting a composer. 
I've corresponded with a few composers through their sites, usually just to ask a question or two about their work:
* Louis Febre (who's going to make me a personal CD of some of his music from the television shows L.A. HEAT and THE FUGITIVE).
* Shawn Clement, who did the music for BATMAN: VENGEANCE for PlayStation2 and WORLD'S WILDEST POLICE VIDEOS, among many others.
* Alan Howarth, HALLOWEEN 3-6
* Elia Cmiral, who found my website for him earlier this year and sent me a thank you email.
But I am planning to write to a number of composers soon, including Trevor Rabin, Christopher L. Stone, Kevin Kiner, and Mike Post, so I'll let you know if I have any success.
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Posted: |
Dec 6, 2001 - 11:12 PM
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By: |
Timmer
(Member)
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Had a great chat with Basil Poledouris at John Barry's party after his 1998 concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, a really easy going and nice guy, I felt like I was chatting with a friend. The only unfortunate thing is that, not knowing he would be there mean't that I didn't have a Poledouris CD cover for him to sign, We had a joke (I can't remember exactly what was said) about him signing my John Barry Program. He was in London recording Les Miserables, Poledouris's summing up of the concert?..."what music...all that wonderful music", he was obviously impressed and stated when I asked him that he would love to perform there himself but wasn't sure where he would fit a large choir ...Now just how cool would a Basil Poledouris concert be
As for John Barry?, well, it was his night and he was surrounded, but I did get him to sign my Octopussy CD with 'To Tim, John Barry'
In my time I've also met Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, John Addison and Ron Goodwin. Goodwin always has time for talking with people and is an incredibly witty person, lovely man!
Also had e-mail correspondence from David Bedford (The Killing Fields + many Mike Oldfield collaborations)
Also, I should mention I met Andre Previn on numerous occasions when he was princible conductor of the LSO in the 70's...his signature is on quite a few of my classical LP's!
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I met John Barry at the 'James Bond Theme' trial in London last March. He had been ill with pnemonia and was in the middle of giving evidence. It was the beginning of his last day in court and he and wife Laurie were flying home to Oyster Bay in New York state that day.
Laurie came into court and I asked her if it would be ok if I asked John for an autograph but that I didn't want to hastle him. She said that he was just down the corridor and to ask him now. She also asked, was it just one CD insert I wanted signed?. I replied that it was. At a signing in 1998 some characters expected him to sign their whole collections!.
I walked down the corridor and said
"John could you do me a favour and sign this"
It was the insert to the 'Thunderball' CD which Don Black had signed the previous day. He was happy to to it. I wished him a good journey home and all the best, he replied
"Thank-you Pete"
We shook hands and I then shook hands with Laurie who said ,
"It's been nice meeting you" ( I had spoken to her earlier in the trial)
We all returned to the court.
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I was all ready to impress you guys with MY brushes with film composers, but my experiences pale in comparison.
Nevertheless... For the record:
I met Peter Schickele after one of his concerts. REALLY nice and super cool man!
And Fred Karlin left a message on my answering machine once, after I wrote him about whether he had anymore copies of his Goldsmith documentary!
Oh, and even though it isn't filmmusic related, one of my closest friends is an EXCELLENT author!
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I was lucky enough to meet a couple of absolute gents of film scoring many years ago. First was the under rated Robert Folk, who invited me along to a London recording session, and he also took me along to have dinner one evening with him and the rest of the scoring crew. The other was Micheal Kamen who I interviewed, occasionally corresponded with and went to two of his recording sessions.
I'm not 'best friends' with these guys but they both made you feel very relaxed and were both memorable encounters which I'll never forget.
I'd like to encounter Mr Goldsmith in this frame of mind one day but everytime I have been in the same room ,along with many of his fans, he always seemed totally uninterested and clearly didn't feel at all comfortable so I never bothered saying hello.
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Posted: |
Dec 7, 2001 - 6:05 PM
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By: |
Philipp
(Member)
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I once met Jay Chattaway in my college in LA. A friend of him was my english teacher, and she discovered that I only bought score cds, so she introduced him to me one day, when he was picking her up, really nice man.
Well, it´s not a film composer, but it is a funny story. Once I was at a Star Trek Convention, my first and only one sadly so far, in Olympia, Washington. I stayed at the hotel it was performed. The last evening, a few minutes befor I had to leave, I went to the toilet, and there was John DeLancie, accompanied by his bodyguards. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. He saw my magazine, and asked me to sign it. I was speechles, and his guards wanted to move on. I told him, this was my last minute here, so he sad to his guys wait a minute. So, on the toilet, I got a signature from John DeLancie.
Philipp
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I was fortunate enough to have met Miklos Rozsa a few times, resulting in my having a personally-inscribed copy of the British edition of his autobiography, "Double Life," several signed lp covers and a couple of original 8x10 b/w stills of him dynamically conducting the soundtrack scoring sessions of BEN-HUR in 1959.
One time, I handed him a copy of the rare, first ad-campaign one-sheet poster from BEN-HUR. He looked it up and down, decided that something important was missing and began to write. At the bottom of the cedits I saw that he had added the words "Music by Miklos Rozsa"! (Rozsa's MGM contract during that period did not stipulate a credit on advertising materials, believe it or not!)
For such a formidable Old World, old school artist and gentleman, he was surprisingly, and wonderfully witty and genial. As such, I like to think that I am the proud owner of the only BEN-HUR poster in existence on which the credits are correct and complete.
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I don't have as many as you all. My autographs are from Bernard Herrmann,
Now the Bernard Herrmann autograph IMPRESSES ME!
How did you get it?
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My first signed letter from a composer/musician was from Alex North right after he scored Spartacus. Over the years I received another letter from Mr. North and my only signed CD cover was from the English Spartacus CD. The letters have generally all been very personable. Ernest Gold even sent a 'musical sketch' from Exodus that including urgings to the orchestra to pump it up in several places. Other letters etc are from Count Basie, Elmer Bernstein, Bruce Broughton, Bill Conti, Georges Delerue,Albert Glasser (terrific wnd witty long letters), Jerry Goldsmith, Maurice Jarre, (w/ musical sketch),Henry Mancini, Laurence Rosenthal, Miklos Rosza, Lalo Schifrin, David Shire and John Williams.
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Posted: |
Dec 8, 2001 - 11:09 PM
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By: |
jeffy
(Member)
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Like a giggly schoolboy, I wrote to John Williams probably a year after I started getting into film scores. I had just bought the 4-CD release of Star Wars and would drive my roommates silly listening to the final 35 minutes of Empire over and over.
Naturally, I had to let Mr. Williams know how much he moved me.
Not expecting anything back, I was curious when an envelope from the Boston Symphony Orchestra came into my mailbox. Inside was an index card with some notes on it and John Williams' signature!
Instantly, one of my musically inclined friends played the notes on the guitar. It was the Star Wars theme!
A couple of weeks later, another envelope from Boston arrived. This time, notes from Jaws were on the card (obviously, this is easy to spot).
After that, I wrote to Alan Menken about two months after he (unjustly) lost his Oscar fro Hunchback of Notrew Dame to Rachel Portman's Emma. Just a little note saying he still has supporters.
He wrote back saying he was one week away from flying to Berlin to oversee the final touches of the stage version of Hunchback (which has yet to arrive in the States). That was really wonderful.
But it's not done yet. In 1998, I heard John Williams was going to be in my hometown of St. Louis (Missouri) to perform a 4th of July concert. I couldn't make it, and I wrote to him wishing him luck.
My brother was able to go, and he bought a 4x6 picture of Williams and asked him to sign it! Boy was that awesome (for me at least, my brother doesn't really get into film scores).
Then, two weeks before the 1999 Oscars I wrote to him wishing him well (he was nominated for Angela's Ashes). The week after, I got another card, with a small picture and five notes (with his signature, of course).
I found a musical friend to help me, and it was the five famous notes from Close Encounters. What fun!
Naturally, all five cards are framed and hanging on my wall. Visitors don't really know who Williams and Menken are, but the are impressed when I tell them.
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