The 12th World Soundtrack Awards to Celebrate the Music of Award-Winning Composer James Newton Howard, Composer Pino Donaggio to Receive World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award

Courtesy of Dan Barry @ Chasen PR. Press Release as follows:

The 12th World Soundtrack Awards To Celebrate the Music of Award-Winning Composer James Newton Howard in Concert

Composer Pino Donaggio To Receive World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award

The music of award-winning composer James Newton Howard will be celebrated in concert at the 12^th World Soundtrack Awards, which will be held at the Kuipke Events Centre in Ghent on Saturday, October 20^th.  Howard is one of the most versatile and respected film music composers currently working in film.  A program of his impressive music will be performed by the renowned Brussels Philharmonic and be accompanied by select film clips.  The concert will be conducted by both Howard and Dirk Brossé.

In addition, composer Pino Donaggio will be receiving the World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award at the event.  A selection of his work will also be performed at the concert.

The World Soundtrack Awards was established by the Ghent Film Festival’s World Soundtrack Academy in 2001.  The World Soundtrack Awards has emerged in the last decade as a top honour for film composers.  Known as the world’s premiere festival for celebrating and honouring film music, the Ghent Film Festival is celebrating its 39^th year and runs October 9 – 20.

Howard most recently scored the blockbuster film The Hunger Games. His credits include King Kong, The Sixth Sense, The Fugitive and Pretty Woman, among many others

James Newton Howard has received eight Oscar® nominations, including six for “Best Original Score” for his work in Defiance (’08), Michael Clayton (’07), The Village (’04), My Best Friend’s Wedding (’97), The Fugitive (’93) and The Prince of Tides (’91). Moreover, he was nominated twice for “Best Original Song” for his work for the films One Fine Day (’96) and Junior (’94).

In 2009, Howard won a Grammy Award along with Hans Zimmer for their score for The Dark Knight.

In 2008 he was crowned “Film Composer of the Year” at the World Soundtrack Awards for his score for Charlie Wilson’s War, Michael Clayton and I Am Legend.

Howard boasts a portfolio with over 100 film scores, including seven films by director M. Night Shyamalan (The Last Airbender, The Happening, Lady in the Water, The Village, Signs, Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense), six films directed by Lawrence Kasdan (Darling Companion, Dreamcatcher, Mumford, French Kiss, Wyatt Earp and Grand Canyon), seven films starring Julia Roberts (Larry Crowne, Duplicity, Charlie Wilson’s War, America’s Sweethearts, Runaway Bride, My Best Friend’s Wedding and Pretty Woman) and three animated films for Walt Disney Studios (Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Dinosaur).

Howard’s work also includes Green Lantern, Water for Elephants, Gnomeo & Juliet, Salt, King Kong, Batman Begins, Vertical Limit, Snow Falling on Cedars, A Perfect Murder, The Devil’s Advocate, Waterworld, Outbreak, and the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman and The Bourne Legacy.

Donaggio is a frequent collaborator of director Brian De Palma and has scored the filmmaker’s Carrie, Home Movies, Dressed To Kill, Blow Out, Body Double and Raising Cain.  Donaggio will also be scoring De Palma’s upcoming feature Passion.  His other credits include Don’t Look Now directed by Nicolas Roeg, Trauma directed by Dario Argento and The Howling directed by Joe Dante.  The Italian composer gained early recognition in Italy for his work as a singer and songwriter.

The Ghent Film Festival and its long-lasting partner, the Brussels Philharmonic, have expressed their passion for music organising prestigious film music concerts over the years in collaboration with the in-house composer and Music Director Dirk Brossé. This collaboration has put top-notch composers including Ennio Morricone, Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, Howard Shore, Angelo Badalamenti, John Barry and Hans Zimmer in the spotlight.

This collaboration grew into an international success and even resulted in Howard Shore turning to the Brussels Philharmonic for the recording of the score for Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, which was awarded a Golden Globe. The Oscar-winning recording of the soundtrack of The Artist is another major highlight.

In addition to this, the Ghent Film Festival and the Brussels Philharmonic have recorded five CDs. The “For The Record” series is a collection of the most beautiful film music by composers Craig Armstrong (Romeo + Juliet, Love Actually), Mychael Danna (Little Miss Sunshine, Capote), Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet), Shigeru Umebayashi (2046, House of Flying Daggers) and Gabriel Yared (The Talented Mr. Ripley, The English Patient). In October 2011 a collectors’ box was launched, which is available at www.filmfestival.be and in Fnac stores.

12th World Soundtrack Awards & Concert

Saturday 20 October at 8 p.m. at ’t Kuipke in Ghent

Guest of honour: James Newton Howard

Performance by the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Dirk Brossé

accompanied by film scenes projected onto a big screen

Tickets for the World Soundtrack Awards & concert cost €29, €39 or €49 and will be on sale at www.filmfestival.be.

For more info feel free to contact Tom Heirbaut (press@filmfestival.be or (+32) (0)9 242 80 79)

Contact: Jeff Sanderson

                Chasen & Company

                310-274-4400

                jeff@chasenpr.com

World Soundtrack Awards 2009 announced at Film Music at the Film Festival of Ghent 2009: Desplat and Rahman the big winners.

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, COCO AVANT CHANEL, LARGO WINCH, CHÉRI)

BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by Alexandre Desplat

BEST ORIGINAL SONG WRITTEN FOR FILM

“JAI HO” from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Music by: A.R. Rahman
Lyrics by Gulzar and Tanvi Shah
Performed by A.R. Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaksmi Iyver, Vijay Prakash
Published by KM Musiq ltd

DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR

NICO MUHLY “THE READER”

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

MARVIN HAMLISCH

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD

“TWILIGHT” CARTER BURWELL

SABAM AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG EUROPEAN COMPOSER

CHRISTOPHER SLASKI

Additional info quoted from moviescoremagazine.com:

"French composer Alexandre Desplat won the ‘Film Composer of the Year’ award and the ‘Best Original Film Score of the Year’ award for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button at the World Soundtrack Awards 2009, which closed the 36th Ghent International Film Festival on Saturday night. A.R. Rahman won the award for ‘Best Original Song Written for Film’ for “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire. Nico Muhly was named the World Soundtrack Academy’s ‘Discovery of the Year’ for his score for The Reader. As announced earlier, Marvin Hamlisch was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The ‘Public Choice Award’ went to Carter Burwell for Twilight, and British composer Christopher Slaski (The Pianotuner of Earthquakes) won the SABAM Award for Best Young European Composer.

The event featured musical performances featuring Hamlisch, Desplat and last year’s ‘Discovery of the Year’ honoree Marc Streitenfeld. The Brussels Philharmonic was conducted by Dirk Brossé, Marvin Hamlisch and Alexandre Desplat."

Click HERE to see PHOTOS from the event.

To read the official PRESS RELEASE, follow this link HERE.

Film music in Ghent: 14-17 October | Film music seminar with Shigeru Umebayashi

With the festival focus on Asia, and composer Shigeru Umebayashi as special guest, this year’s film music seminar will be focusing on the use of sound and music in contemporary Chinese film.

The morning kicks off with a brief overview of Chinese film, in all its sensory splendour, by renowned sinologist Anne Sytske Keijser. Since the eighties (and the Chinese New Wave), Chinese film has been more heavily focused on the aesthetic experience, communicated through sound and image, than on conventional narrative. Music plays a pivotal role, with sounds mixed and edited in a very specific way to complement the director’s vision. Anne Sytske Keijser and Martine Huvenne will demonstrate the effects in a number of sound and film clips.

In the afternoon session, Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi will be the honoured guest in an interview with Japanologist Luk Van Haute. Umebayashi is perhaps best known for penning Yumeji’s Theme from Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love. Originally written for Seijun Suzuki’s Yumeji, this track has been featured in a number of different films, including Kar Wai’s My Blueberry Nights. An accomplished composer, with more than 40 Chinese and Japanese film soundtracks to his credit, Umebayashi finds his inspiration all over the world, moving beyond a purely Asian sound to blend Eastern and Western influences.

The seminar will be held on Friday 16 October 2009, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Royal Conservatory (Koninklijk Conservatorium) on 64 Hoogpoort in Ghent.

To register click here

Organisers: the Ghent Film Festival in collaboration with University College Ghent, Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Hogeschool Gent, KASK).

Film music in Ghent: 14-17 October | The ALEXANDRE DESPLAT and the TRAFFIC QUINTET tribute concert to Femme Fatales

Marilyn Monroe, Janet Leigh, Sharon Stone, Jeanne Moreau and Nicole Kidman, these are only a few of the world-famous actresses who made film history to what it is today. Composer Alexandre Desplat and the Traffic Quintet pay a musical tribute to these mythical women called Divine Féminin. A marvellous film soundtrack night with ‘Women’ as theme, on Wednesday 14 October in Handelsbeurs Ghent.

The French composer, Alexandre Desplat, adapted music by colleague-composers like Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Georges Delerue and Gabriel Yared. The accompanying images are by film maker Ange Leccia who based himself on the American film noir and the work of the French artist Jacques Monory. An instrumental suite which Pacal Dusapin wrote for his opera Medeamaterial is also part of the concert. The music will be accompanied by images of Maria Callas in her only film role as Medea in the film of the same name by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

More info and tickets: filmfestival.be

Film music in Ghent: 14-17 October | General info

ORIGINAL SOURCE: MAINTITLES.NET / Bregt DeLange

This year's Ghent film festival focuses on Asian cinema, and in particular China. Running from 6 until 17 October 2009, the annual festival is again host to a couple of film music concerts. One focuses on the music of Shigeru Umebayashi, composer of House of the Flying Daggers and 2046.

The festival also ends with the World Soundtrack Awards. This event will include a concert of French composer Alexandre Desplat's music. On this page you will find all film music related events planning during these 10 days.

Jef Neve Trio

Pianist and composer Jef Neve has been the wonder boy of Flemish jazz for years. After having written the soundtrack for Felix van Groeningen's film Dagen zonder lief (With Friends like These), the director asked him again to write the music for De helaasheid der dingen (The Misfortunates), which will open the Ghent Film Festival in Vooruit on 6 October.

The Jef Neve Trio will perform the music Neve wrote for Dagen zonder lief and De helaasheid der dingen.

October 10 - 9pm
Vooruit, Ghent

Traffic Quintet: De Godard à Audiard

Famous for their collaboration with Alexandre Desplat for the compilation Nouvelles Vagues: De Godard à Audiard, on which Desplat selects and arranges for a short summary of this movement in French cinema, with music from Delerue, Duhamel, Jarre and Desplat himself. The quintet will perform pieces from this cd, enabling a different view on French film music.

October 14 - 8pm
Handelsbeurs, Ghent
More info coming soon

Shigeru Umebayashi in Concert

Dirk Brossé conducts the Brussels Philharmonic and choir with soprano Ilse Eerens. On the programme music from In The Mood for Love, 2046, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower.

October 15 - 10:30pm
Vooruit, Ghent
More info and tickets

Film music semenary with Shigeru Umebayashi

A half day event in which Umebayashi explains and talks about his work in film music, as well as the possibility to go in debate, ask questions and interact with the composer.

October 16 - 10am to 4pm
More info coming soon

World Soundtrack Awards (9th edition) with a concert of Alexandre Desplat's music

The composers Alexandre Desplat and Marvin Hamlisch will be the guests of honour at the 9th World Soundtrack Awards. The Brussels Philharmonic will be playing music from The Girl with the Pearl Earring, The Queen, The Painted Veil and Lust Caution among others. The American composer Marvin Hamlisch, who created unforgettable music for films such as The Way We Were and The Sting, will receive the World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award. Music from Marc Streitenfold, Discovery of the Year 2008, will also be part of the first half of the event.

The whole second half of the event is focused on Desplat, and next to the already mentioned titles, also music from Birth, The Golden Compass and Benjamin Button will be performed. The final programme will be announced later on, so changes are possible, but expansions as well (including some older works).

Also, you can also vote for your favourite score (from the period between July 1 2008 and June 30 2009) for the Public Choice Award.

October 17 - 8pm
Bijloke, Ghent

For More info and tickets visit the official website of the WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS here.

Stay tuned with the mother-hosting festival, which is the Ghent Film Festival and which you can visit over at their official website here.

World Soundtrack Academy announces Discovery nominees 2009

The World Soundtrack Academy releases the list of nominees for the World Soundtrack Discovery 2009. The name of the winner will be announced on October 17 at the World Soundtrack Awards ceremony, the closing event of the Ghent International Film Festival.

Every year the advisory board of the World Soundtrack Academy chooses a ‘Discovery of the Year’ to celebrate emerging film composing talent. Famous composers as Craig Armstrong, Michael Giacchino and Gustavo Santaolalla were discovered by the board.

The nominees for 2009 are

- Lorne Balfe for Crying with Laughter
- Jérôme Lemonnier for Demain dès l’aube
- Andrew Lockington for Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Nico Muhly for The Reader
- Atli Örvarsson for Babylon AD

The composers Alexandre Desplat and Marvin Hamlisch will be the guests of honour at the 9th World Soundtrack Awards. The Brussels Philharmonic will perform music from The Girl with the Pearl Earring, The Queen, The Painted Veil and Lust Caution among others.

The American composer Marvin Hamlisch, who created unforgettable music for films and musicals such as The Way We Were and A Chorus Line, will receive the World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award. Young film music talent is also represented with the composer Marc Streitenfeld who carried off the World Soundtrack Discovery Award last year with his soundtrack for American Gangster by Ridley Scott.

Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic
Conductors: Dirk Brossé, Alexandre Desplat, Marvin Hamlisch

For more info and an overview of all nominees:

www.worldsoundtrackacademy.com

[photo portrays Angelo Badalamenti accepting his WSA award from a previous year's installment. Photo copyright Angelo Badalamenti]

Nominations announced for World Soundtrack Awards 2009

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

o CARTER BURWELL (Burn After Reading, Twilight)
o ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Coco Avant Chanel, Largo Winch, Cheri)
o DANNY ELFMAN (Milk, Taking Woodstock, Notorious)
o MICHAEL GIACCHINO (Star Trek, Up, Land of the Lost)
o HANS ZIMMER (Frost/Nixon, Angels & Demons, The Dark Knight)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OF THE YEAR

o BURN AFTER READING by Carter Burwell
o THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON by Alexandre Desplat
o FROST/NIXON by Hans Zimmer
o THE INTERNATIONAL by Reinhold Heil, Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek
o SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE by A.R. Rahman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR A FILM

o “GRAN TORINO” from Gran Torino
Music & Lyrics by Jamie Cullum, Clint Eastwood, Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens
Performed by Jamie Cullum & Don Runner

o “JAI HO” from Slumdog Millionaire
Music by : A.R. Rahman
Lyrics by Gulzar and Tanvi Shah
Performed by A.R. Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalaksmi Iyver, Vijay Prakash
Published by KM Musiq ltd

o “O SAYA” from Slumdog Millionaire
Music & Lyrics by A.R. Rahman and Mathangi Arulpragasam
Performed by M.I.A. & A.R. Rahman
Published by KM Musiq ltd

o “RUN & HIDE” from Je l’aimais
Music & lyrics by Anna Chalon
Performed by Anna chalon

o “THE WRESTLER” from The Wrestler
Music & lyrics by Bruce Springsteen
Performed by Bruce Springsteen
Published by Bruce Springsteen

Vote now for your favourite soundtrack and win a World Soundtrack VIP-ticket

Have you always dreamt of being a VIP at the World Soundtrack Awards ceremony during the Ghent International Film Festival? Then vote now for your favourite soundtrack of the past year and win a free night’s stay in the prestigious Marriott Hotel Ghent and two VIP-tickets for the World Soundtrack Awards ceremony and concert on 17 October!

How does it work? Go to www.worldsoundtrackacademy.com, look at the list of films and pick your favourite film music. The composer collecting the most votes will receive the Public Choice Award at the World Soundtrack Awards, the official closing event of the Ghent International Film Festival.

The Marriott Hotel Ghent is a world-class hotel situated in one of the most romantic spots in the historic city centre of Ghent. Thanks to its satisfaction score of 95 percent it ranks as the second highest rated Marriott Hotel in the world. Since last year, the Marriott Hotel has been the official festival hotel where all its international guests stay. Do you feel like savouring the festival atmosphere from the hotel? Don’t delay and vote today for your favourite soundtrack!

The voting for the Public Choice Award runs from 6 July to 15 September and is supervised by PricewaterhouseCoopers.