Meet the Artist

　　Jerry Goldsmith has been writing music for films and television for more forty years almost from beginning of career, has been one of the field's most talented and respected artists. Seventeen of his nearly two hundred original scores have been nominated for Hollywood's prestigious Academy Award, an honor Mr.Goldsmith won in 1976 for his powerful choral and orchestral score for The Omen.
　　Mr. Goldsmith's music has accompanied some of the most important and memorable films of our time, including The Sand Pebbles, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, Star Trek:The Motion Picture, Basic Instinct, and L.A. Confidential. The winner of five Emmy Awards for music for television, his familiar and beloved themes include "Dr. Kildare", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.","The Waltons", "Barnaby Jones", and the current hit "Star Trek: Voyager".
　　Mr. Goldsmith was born in 1929, in Los Angeles, and studied with pianist Jakob Gimpel and composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He later studied film composition with renowned composer Miklos Rozsa (Ben-Hur), whose music for Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound inspired Mr. Goldsmith to pursue movie work. He started at CBS in the early 1950s, composing music for live radio and, later, for television programs such as "Climax!" and the landmark anthology "Playhouse 90". His scores for such classic shows as "Twilight Zone" and Boris Karloff's "Thriller" brought him to the attention of legendary composer Alfred Newman, who recommended him to the producers of the Kirk Douglas film Lonely Are the Brave. That film, a modern-day westem released in 1962, became Mr. Goldsmith's first major feature assignment.
　　Ever since, Mr. Goldsmith has been one of a handful of Hollywood's most sought-after composers. His collaborations with such directors as John Frankenheimer, Robert Wise, and Franklin J. Schaffner have yielded some of the industry's finest scores.
　　Mr. Schaffner, in fact, was the recipient of some of Mr. Goldsmith's most remarkable work, including the avant-garde impressionism of the classic Planet of the Apes (1968), the martial strains of Patton (1970) and the lyricism of Papillon (1973). Patton, in particular, has become a textbook exmple of the use of music to subtly delineate character via music: echoing trtmpets suggest the controversial general's belief in reincarnation and his links with the history of warfare; a chorale conveys his strong religious beliefs; and the march defines the dyed-in-the-wool military man.
　　Many of Mr. Goldsmith's scores have succeeded in evoking exotic or otherworldly locales: the Moroccan landscapes of The Wind and the Lion (1975), the medieval Camelot of First Knight (1995), the post-Soviet Moscow of The Russia House (1990), and the ancient China of this summer's animated Disney film Mulan. He reinvented the sound of television's "Star Trek" with his heroic, Oscarnominated score for Star Trek:The Motion Picture (1979), inspiring creator Gene Roddenberry to borrow its theme for the long-running "Star Trek:The Next Generation" series. The movie's producers hired him for three subsequent sequels: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: First Contact, and the forthcoming Star Trek:Insurrection.
　　In the fantasy realm, Mr. Goldsmith has written music for such high-profile filmmakers as Steven Spielberg-the eerie ghost story Poltergeist (1982)-and Joe Dante-notably a fun romp through his two Gremlins films (1984, 1990) and this summer's Small Soldiers. As Mr. Dante reported in an interview earlier this year for the show-biz daily Variety:"When we're on the set and things aren't working out, we just say, 'Oh, it's okay,Jerry will save it. All of the drama of a movie comes up eight notches once Jerry's music is in it."
　　Ironically, while Mr. Goldsmith has become known in recent years for his large-scale, action-adventure music for such box-office successes as the Rambo movies and Air Force One, the composer actually prefers writing music for small, quiet, character-driven films. Over the years, such classics as A Patch of Blue (1965) and Chinatown (1974) have benefited from the more lyrical Goldsmith touch. For director David Anspaugh, Mr. Goldsmith contributed a touching score for the underrated Rudy (1993) and created a middle-America ambiance for Hoosiers (1986) that elevated those movies into winning portraits of small-town America.
　　In recent years, as befits an elder statesman of the art of composing music for motion pictures, Mr. Goldsmith has adopted a more public profile, frequently conducting symphony orchestras around the world in concerts of his own music. Commencing with today's concert, this season will include concerts in Spain, Japan, Scotland, England, and at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences commissioned him to compose Fanfare for Oscar, which has become the theme for its Academy Award ceremonies and will herald their annual worldwide broadcasts.
　　Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed his concert work Music for Orchestra to critical acclaim, and next year is expected to premiere an original music-and-image collaboration between Mr. Goldsmith and Basic Instinct director Paul Verhoeven.
　　Mr. Schaffner, who first worked with Mr. Goldsmith in live television in the '50s and insisted upon him as composer as often as he could throughout his celebrated career, once said of the maestro, "Jerry Goldsmith is an artist who meets all the demands upon the composer in film. He communicates, integrates, subordinates, supports, and designs with discipline...but his music transcends all of its corporate services and stands by itself as a musical entity, containing its own dramatic narrative with an engaging symphonic integrity."

-Copyright (c) 1998 by Jon Burlingame


"Imagine films without music - a dramatic battle without the roar of a brass section or a tender love scene without a sensual string line."


　　The talent and performance of studio musicians who play film and TV music are unknowingly appreciated on a daily basis by audiences worldwide. Jon Burlingame's book about the RMA (Recording Musician's Association), For the Record, states that studio musicians "are among the finest players in the world and are truly among the greatest contributors to our country's artistic life." 　　The presence of music in film, by its very nature of conveying emotion, adds dimension to every movie experience. This crucial dimension, however, is usually left in the musical darkroom during the production of the film. The time has come to develop those negatives and bring this music out from the darkness and into the light.
　　The New York FILMharmonic Orchestra (NYFO) is a professional orchestra composed of 92 of New York's finest studio musicians. Its primary purpose is to perform, in concert, music written for film and television, which, in some cases, has not been previously performed live.
　　Newly incorporated and given its name a little more than a year ago, the orchestra, assembled by Mr. Charlap to record film scores, albums, and commercials, has actually been in existence for over thirty years. The members of this orchestra are credited with over 125 movie soundtracks. The NYFO is the first orchestra in New York to introduce the magical world of film music to large audiences and new listeners. It presents a new, live form of quality performing arts, with works performed by many of the same musicians who performed the compositions in the recording studio.
　　Under the musical direction of Maestro Anton Coppola and prominent guest conductors, the NYFO plans to perfom programs that include thematic concerts structured around famous soundtrack composers and movie types including science fiction, adventure films, or children's and animated feature films for our younger audiences. Other thematic concerts will coincide with certain dates: a "Halloween" concert in late October will include music from horror films, and a "Valentine" concert in February will include music from romantic movies. The NYFO aims to present nine concerts per season.
　　In addition, some concerts will include pre-concert lectures by special guests,such as film-music composers, directors and actors. Some "behind the scenes" presentations will also take place to show the audience how music is set to film in the recording studio. These presentations will illustrate the importance of music in the movies, and expose the links between film and music, images and sounds.
　　A further purpose of the orchestra is to be actively involved with education and community outreach programs. Several New York-based foundations are helping children to obtain musical instruments, and the NYFO hopes to inspire these youngsters to actually perform on these instruments. The best way to achieve this goal is to allow the children to watch and listen to musicians perform live. Booming sales of soundtrack recordings indicate that film music has more appeal to young audiences than a symphony by Beethoven or Mahler. The New York FILMharmonic Orchestra wants to bridge the gap between classical and film music by showing the similarities between the two forms.
　　These educational activities are being planed with the "Early Stages" organization ("Bringing Arts to the Schools and Schools to the Arts" ) in conjunction with the New York City Board of Education. In this role, NYFO will send small groups of musicians into the community and local public schools to help educate students, senior citizens, and special interest groups on the beauty and power of film music. These groups will be invited to attend dress rehearsals of NYFO concerts.
　　Lastly, but very importantly, the NYFO wants to foster the interest of talented new composers to actually write music for film. Members of the NYFO board of advisors will audition and select new composers who will be given the chance to have their works performed in public.
　　Through coordinated efforts and the support of the music-loving public, the NYFO will help maintain film music as a vital and memorable part of the American music scene.