BMI Helps Sundance Lab Fellows Explore Music’s Crucial Role in Storytelling

BMI proudly supported this year’s fellows of the Sundance Institute Film Music & Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound: Ho-Ling Tang, Jorge Aragón Brito, Gene Back, Ghiya Rushidat, Aska Matsumiya, Ozie Cargile, Sara Broshofske and Emily Rice, who represent a variety of countries from Cuba, Hong Kong, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and the U.S.

During the Lab, which is run each year by Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Film Music Program, composers, directors and sound designers collaborated to develop music and sound for fiction and nonfiction film projects through workshops and creative exercises. Creative advisors this year included award-winning BMI composers Alan Silvestri, Harry Gregson-Williams, James Newton Howard, Miriam Cutler, Fil Eisler and Tony Morales, as well as music editor Adam Smalley, film director Ken Kwapis, composers Marco Beltrami and Christophe Beck and music supervisor Brooke Wentz. Sound designers Randy Thom, Bob Edwards, Pete Horner, Dennis Leonard, Richard Gould, Baihui Yang, Kim Patrick, Stephen Urata, Alyssa Nevarez, and music editor Jonathon Stevens were also onsite to help mentor the fellows during the two-week program, as were Founding Director of Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program Michelle Satter, Director of the Documentary Film Program Tabitha Jackson, and Skywalker Sound’s General Manager Josh Lowden.

As founding supporters of the Institute’s Film Music Program, BMI has played a critical role in the long-term development of the Lab, and through its involvement, has enhanced the careers of many film composers who have participated. BMI Vice President-Creative, Film/TV and Visual Media, Doreen Ringer-Ross, serves as an advisor at the Lab.

This year, scenes from the projects of filmmakers Ilinca Calugareanu, Tasha Van Zandt, Andres Farías, Jennifer Taylor, Nicole Riegel, Gregory Kershaw, Michael Dweck, Bryan Wizemann and Cedric Cheung-Lau were scored by the fellows and performed by a live chamber orchestra providing a unique hands-on experience for the talented mentees.