Composer Benjamin Wallfisch Scores "Summer in February"
A behind the scenes look at the original score for SUMMER IN FEBRUARY (2013). Featuring interviews with composer Benjamin Wallfisch, producers Pippa Cross and Jeremy Cowdrey, and footage from the orchestral and piano recording sessions with international virtuoso Yuja Wang and the Chamber Orchestra of London. Soundtrack available on Deutsche Grammophon.
ABOUT COMPOSER BENJAMIN WALLFISCH:
Benjamin Wallfisch is an Emmy®, Ivor Novello and multiple World Soundtrack Award nominated composer. To date, he has worked on 39 feature films, working closely with directors including Terry Gilliam, Thomas Vinterberg, Lars von Trier, Joe Wright, Faruk Aksoy, Farren Blackburn and Rupert Wyatt.
He made his debut as a film composer at the age of 24, scoring Lars von Trier’s, Dear Wendy. His work on this score earned him a nomination for ‘Discovery of the Year’ in the World Soundtrack Awards and for ‘Best Original Score’ in the Danish Film Academy Awards.
His subsequent score, for Rupert Wyatt’s suspense thriller The Escapist earned him a nomination as ‘Best Original Film Score’ in the 2009 Ivor Novello Awards and his second nomination as Discovery of the Year in the 2008 World Soundtrack Awards.
Ben recently completed a spectacularly epic orchestral score for the feature film Conquest 1453 directed by Faruk Aksoy, the most successful film ever in Turkey and in early 2012, the second most popular film on IMDB, beaten only by Underworld: Awakening. The film retells the historical Turkish national tale of the 1453 Ottoman siege of Byzantine Constantinople. Since then Benjamin has been on a roll having been commissioned to score films including Summer in February and Desert Dancer for Crossday Prods, Hours for the Safran Company and most recently, the Viking saga thriller from Vertigo Films, Hammer Of The Gods and Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain, which tells the tragic story of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India and stars Martin Sheen and Mischa Barton.
Benjamin orchestrated and conducted Dario Marianelli’s Oscar® and Golden Globe® winning score for Atonement and has worked as sole orchestrator on numerous other studio pictures such as Pride and Prejudice (Oscar® nominated, Best Original Score 2006), V for Vendetta, The Soloist, Eat Pray Love, Jane Eyre and Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. A song piece of Benjamin’s was picked up as the opening title music for the Sony Pictures feature , ‘Moon’, directed by Duncan Jones and starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey. Most recently he arranged the music for the acclaimed feature documentary Life in a Day, produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin MacDonald, and composed additional music for The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins and also for Red Riding Hood, directed by Catherine Hardwicke of the Twilight series.
Classically trained, Benjamin obtained a Masters degree with Distinction in Composition from London’s Royal Academy of Music, and is the first composer in the Academy’s history to be awarded the Honorary Diploma of the Academy as well as being the recipient of every Academy composition prize. Benjamin owns scoring and recording facilities in London and Los Angeles and is represented by COOL Music Ltd. (London), Greenspan Kohan Management (Los Angeles) and IMG Artists (New York, London). His concert and theatre music is published by Edition Peters.
Benjamin is also in demand as a concert composer and conductor and has worked closely with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, performing in venues including the Hollywood Bowl, Sydney Opera House and London’s Royal Festival Hall and Barbican.