Coming Full Circle: How the LAFCI Inspired Me to Become a Media Composer
In January 2024, I had the opportunity to attend the prestigious Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive, a workshop designed to equip modern media composers with the skills they need to succeed in the scoring industry. This was an important milestone for me for many reasons, particularly because I was inspired to become a media composer when I attended the 2017 LAFCI as an observer.
The LAFCI was founded by two incredible people: Angel Velez, one of the most in-demand conductors in the entertainment industry today, and David Newman, famed composer, conductor, and son of film composer Alfred Newman. Angel and David shared a common frustration: they noticed that young composers entering the scoring industry often did not have the training necessary to meet expectations. The level of professionalism and standards of excellence associated with old Hollywood and recorded music for media were being eroded by lack of education, hands-on training, and opportunity. In an effort to solve this problem, they started the LAFCI in 2016. The year their first Intensive workshop debuted, participants included Oppenheimer composer Ludwig Göransson and other well-known composers. The Intensive was designed to train composers with no previous training on how to conduct and facilitate orchestral recording sessions for film, television, and games. Over the years it has blossomed into a comprehensive course covering all aspects of scoring including conducting, orchestration, compositional technique, music business, and more with faculty including Emilie Bernstein, Conrad Pope, William Ross, Booker White, and Jorge Mester, among others.
Circling back a bit, 2017 was a significant year for me. I was sixteen, living in the small town of Redding in Northern California (my birthplace), taking composition and conducting lessons at Shasta College. I had always known from an early age that I wanted to be a musician. I knew I wanted to be a composer, and I knew that I wanted to conduct. I also had a great love for film music having been brought up on Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and other classics featuring some of the greatest film scores of all time. That said, I was still wandering through my musical education somewhat aimlessly, not focused on any one career path. When I turned seventeen, I came out as transgender to my family and select friends; since Redding is very small, isolated, and largely conservative, this life change brought some challenges that added to my directional crisis. Robin, my mom, who has always been one of my biggest supporters and encouragers, saw this struggle and recognized my aptitude for composition. She also knew I loved film music, and in a casual online search to find opportunities for me to participate as a composer, she stumbled upon the LAFCI’s website and saw that they were accepting applications for the 2018 Intensive which would be held at the historic and iconic Eastwood Scoring Stage on the Warner Bros lot in Burbank, California. She saw that composers who were chosen as Fellows would get the chance to record their own music with a professional studio orchestra and thought, knowing that I probably would not be invited to participate, it would at least be a valuable experience for me to submit, regardless of the outcome.
Excited by the potential, I made a very amateur attempt at writing some film music. At the time, I was composing music exclusively in Sibelius, a notation program. I had no idea what a DAW was or how to use sample libraries; nevertheless, the submission for the Intensive required that composers present notated scores with an accompanying mockup. Looking back, I remember being inspired by Michael Giacchino’s score for Rogue One because I had recently seen the film and thus, the score was at the forefront of my listening pallet. I tried to write something that emulated that sound (shocker - it, of course, never even came close!). I think there were times when I wanted to give up on it, but my mom kept pushing me to finish and submit my work. When I was close to completing my piece, we looked back at the LAFCI website to figure out how to submit, and low and behold, I had missed the deadline. I remember feeling a bit crushed, but my mom wrote an email asking if I could still submit. As if by some miracle, Angel Velez wrote back explaining that they had to extend the deadline unexpectedly which gave me time to finish my submission material and send it off. When it was finished, my mom helped me print three copies of the conductor’s score on some cheap 20 LB tabloid size paper. We bound it with a three-hole punch and brass brads not realizing we had committed scoring industry sacrilege by not adhering to standard music preparation practices that are key to successful scoring sessions. Additionally, the material I had written was hardly up to snuff. We mailed the scores and thumb drives containing the General MIDI recording from Sibelius to the LAFCI faculty in Los Angeles for review. And then we waited.
Much to our surprise, one October night during dinner, the home phone rang. Mom picked up the call and then proceeded to hand the phone to me. Angel Velez was on the line to inform me that due to my age and the material I had submitted, I was not being considered for a fellowship in the Intensive, which did not come as a surprise. However, he went on to say that he wanted to encourage my interest in film music and, much to our amazement, invited me and mom to attend the final day of the 2018 Intensive (the final recording session at Warner Bros) as guests to observe! This was incredibly shocking, unexpected, and naturally very exciting. Angel was so generous and gracious to invite us to be a part of the Intensive; regardless, I remember being mystified as to why Angel would take such a risk.
My mom is the true hero of this story. At this time, we were certainly not well off by any means, and a big trip to Los Angeles meant the experience would be pricey. She decided to take time off from running her own fashion line and marketing business to drive us from Redding, California to Burbank, California (9.5+ hours) in our 2005 Toyota Matrix (which is now my car… things really do come full circle). Since we didn’t have the money for an extended stay, she decided to drive us down one day, stay the night in an Air BnB, spend the next day at the session, and then drive us nine hours back to Redding after the session concluded. So that's what we did; Mom booked an Air BnB in Burbank (we found out from the owners later that the house had been owned by Ava Gardner!), and in mid-January, we made the long, weary trek to La La Land.
On the day of the session, we had breakfast at the iconic Bob’s Big Boys restaurant, then made our way to Warner Bros and entered with our LAFCI guest passes. We saw Central Perk from Friends, and a chunk of concrete recovered from the dismantling of the Berlin Wall on display as we made our way to the Eastwood Scoring Stage. We were greeted warmly by Angel as we entered, both of us overwhelmed by the scale of the space.
As musicians walked in, we were introduced to timpanist extraordinaire Don Williams, John William’s brother, and the principal percussionist of the LA Phil. Angel gave us a tour before the session began and then we sat down to enjoy the events of the day. At the time, we were not aware of the fact that studio orchestras have no rehearsal. Much to our amazement, they sat down and sightread the music perfectly the first time. When the first composer of the day gave their downbeat, we heard the orchestra play this incredibly complex music perfectly on the first take, and it was at that moment when my life changed: I knew that THIS was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. With those people, in that space, in Los Angeles…. From that moment on, I knew I had to put every effort into becoming a media composer, living and working in Hollywood!
We were blown away by the superhuman musicianship of the instrumentalists and the wide range of fantastic music offered by the participating composers. It was as beautiful an experience for my mom as it was for me. When the orchestra broke for lunch, again to my surprise, Angel invited me to sit in the booth where the engineers and the orchestrators, Conrad Pope and William Ross, were situated. I remember sitting on the couch behind the gigantic mixing console; at the time, I didn’t know who Conrad Pope was, or William Ross (nor did I know they would become two of my heroes later in life). But I noticed them and observed them. Before the orchestra was back from lunch ready to record, I remember Conrad looking back at me and catching my eye, beaming pleasantly. I smiled in return and then watched intently, fascinated with the inner workings of the booth playing out in real-time.
Conrad and William would make notes on their scores and sketch on score pads during the session, giving feedback to the composers out on the podium. They would deftly make suggestions and changes to make the music the best it could possibly be. Little did I know that I was in the company of Hollywood royalty, and some of John Williams’ biggest collaborators. At one point, Heitor Pereira, famed composer known for the Despicable Me series popped into the booth for a brief visit and was kind enough to shake my hand. The day was dreamy, incredibly inspiring, and educational. Now I knew what this new world looked like, I knew a bit about how it worked, and I connected with industry professionals all because of Angel’s kindness. It was an opportunity more than worth its weight in gold.
We drove back to Redding that night in the highest of spirits. Fast forward five years to the summer of 2022. My family made our lifelong dream a reality and moved from our hometown of Redding to San Diego, California. My Parents were born and raised in Redding, just like my brother and I, and they had always dreamed of escaping to live a better life of opportunity in Southern California.
Shortly after we moved, I connected with Conrad Pope online and told him I was interested in meeting. He and his wife Nan Schwartz (Grammy Winning arranger and conductor), graciously invited me to their home for their 2022 Holiday Party where Conrad gave me some of the best career advice I’ve ever received and enthusiastically encouraged me to attend the LAFCI. So, in January 2023, I established goals that I had for myself in terms of building my career as a media scoring professional and one of those goals was to submit to participate in the LAFCI 2024 Intensive. I worked hard and composed, orchestrated, and mocked up my first complete, fully realized orchestral film cue in the style of John Williams, Howard Shore, Alexandre Desplat, etc., which you can watch below. In five years, I had developed and honed my skills tirelessly, and so I finally felt confident that my music might stand a chance this time around. So I submitted my cue and mockup knowing that Angel Velez, Conrad Pope, and William Ross would be reviewing my music once again.
In mid-October, five years after that fated phone call in Redding, I got an email back from Angel informing me that I had been accepted as an in-person auditor of the program! I couldn’t have been happier or more grateful for the opportunity and I found myself giddy with excitement to participate and learn from my heroes! We had two eight-hour days of orientation over Zoom in preparation for the in-person Intensive later in January where we heard from Angel, Conrad, and William, in addition to Booker White, Emilie Bernstein, and some guest speakers including music supervisor Angela Leus, film music historian Tim Grieving, president of the ASC Shelly Johnson, and Olympic Gold Medalist David Neville. Those days were inspiring and filled with fascinating thoughts, knowledge, and perspectives. Plus, I got to virtually meet my LAFCI colleagues.
In January 2024, I made my way to LA from San Diego to attend the LAFCI welcome party at the historic Smokehouse Restaurant Across from the Warner Bros Lot in Burbank. There I met my fellow colleagues in person, some of whom I had already met at various other LA events and functions. Some notable people I had the pleasure of connecting with were LAFCI Coordinator Michele Henderson, who remembered me from the 2018 Intensive, Oliviana Marie, Geronimo Mercado, Daniel D’Mello Goodwin, Anne-Marie Keane, Jacob Moss, and Enea Astori. We had a fabulous catered dinner, followed by a beautiful speech given by Angel who officially welcomed us all into the Intensive and expressed his thanks to the faculty and staff among other advisory remarks. We were then paired with and introduced to our “acountabili-buddies,” fellow colleagues we could connect with in an effort to help one another during the Intensive. I was paired with composer Nate Chester Henninger whose company I thoroughly enjoyed. I left the nostalgia-inducing confines of The Smokehouse feeling tired from my four-hour, traffic-ridden journey but inspired and rejuvenated, ready to take on the next four days. It was surreal to leave the restaurant and see the WB logo gleaming in the chilly night sky as I found my way back to my car, the same trusty Toyota Matrix that had gotten us to the LAFCI in the past.
The mounting surrealism continued from then on; the next morning I woke bright and early and left my lodgings in Glendale making my way to Blake Neely’s Cow On The Wall Studios in North Hollywood. To my surprise, I was the first to arrive, and as I walked up to the aptly named Cow On The Wall Studios (neighboring the Television Academy Museum), sure enough, there was an iconic, giant cow sculpture behind glass. I waited outside where people began to congregate one by one; Jinny Lee and Kyle J. Hartman joined me, then Nacho González Nappa and Rey Fernandez Jr., who I recognized from the orientation in November and social media. Pretty soon the entire workshop was standing in the parking lot waiting to be let into the studio. It was very early, and we were all still waking up a bit. Angel joined us and at one point asked how we had all heard of the workshop; when it was my turn to speak, I explained my past history with the Intensive which prompted Angel to elaborate on his perspective of inviting me to the 2018 Intensive. I squirmed silently with embarrassment and modesty as I tend to do when in the spotlight. I was surprised to finally learn why I had been invited to observe as a guest. Angel remembered that it was Conrad who had urged him to encourage my interest in film music. I was shocked and humbled to know that the less traveled road I had been inspired to embark upon was in large part due to the generosity and kindness of someone who had become one of my greatest musical heroes. Angel topped off his story by kindly saying he felt I was a part of the LAFCI family. It was admittedly quite nice to come full circle and gain insight into the event that basically jumpstarted my career.
Over the next four days, my fellow LAFCI colleagues and I learned from the faculty on a wide variety of topics focusing on conducting for film. Each morning, we joined Emilie Berstein (orchestrator and composer, daughter of Elmer Bernstein) for pilates which helped prepare us for the physicalities of conducting an ensemble. After two days at Cow On the Wall and watching the fellows rehearse their own music and works of John Williams and Elgar with various small ensembles, we moved to the Eastwood Scoring Stage on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank. It was surreal checking in at Gate 2, the same gate my mom and I had walked through years ago. Walking into Building 6 felt even more strange; back then I had no concept of how lucky I was to be in that space, but this time, knowing more about the history of the Eastwood stage, it felt like I was in the company of ghosts. That Saturday, the fellows were to conduct the workshop repertoire (several of which were Live to Picture where the fellows had to follow punches and streamers projected on the scrim behind the ensemble) with an orchestra consisting of student musicians from the surrounding Universities. The sound of the orchestra was phenomenal, and I could hear the Eastwood stage breathe as it was filled with beautiful music. It was a particular joy to hear “Tribute to the Film Composer” arranged by John Williams being played LTP, especially with Conrad Pope, who orchestrated the piece, there to advise the fellows on the best approach to conducting certain passages.
The fourth and final day of the Intensive was the capstone recording session with a professional studio orchestra, in this case, the Hollywood Studio Orchestra, where the fellows were to record and conduct their own pieces. In the morning, we had pilates with Emilie in dubbing stage 6 (we were kicked out shortly because the post-production sound crew were putting final touches on Kung Fu Panda 4), and then we attended a zoom panel with conductor Marin Alsop before heading back to Eastwood for the session. Hearing a professional, contracted studio orchestra made up of LA’s finest musicians was a beautiful reminder of why I’m so passionate about writing orchestral music, and the importance of writing for live players whenever possible. Seeing the fellows on the podium experiencing their music live gave me hope for the future of music in cinema. After saying goodbye to my new friends who participated in the LAFCI, and professing my thanks to Conrad and Angel plus the rest of the faculty, I left the lot feeling elated, uplifted, and inspired to continue achieving my career goals.
A couple of things I took away from my LAFCI experience would be that while my goal is still to make a career as a media composer in Hollywood, my passion for orchestration, score production, conducting, and music prep is just as deep. That realization left me feeling more clear-headed about the direction I plan on taking, and now I offer full-scope music services and have been lucky enough to steadily pick up my own clients. Angel Velez told us that we have to make our own opportunities to carve a path forward in our careers which inspired me to produce a Live to Picture scoring session with Mission Bay High School’s Advanced Symphony Orchestra here in San Diego. I collaborated with my friends Cheska Navarro and Marilynn Do in partnership with Jean-Paul Balmat at MBHS, and the project, which took place this Spring, was a huge success. I realized also through our Mission Bay Project that a community for music makers and artists is so important, which was evident to me during my time at the LAFCI. Additionally, Hollywood seems big and vast as an outsider, but now as an insider, I can see it’s actually a very small group of people. One drawback of that exclusivity is that the skills and standards that developed in Old Hollywood are no longer widely known or practiced. The subtleties of conducting for media, orchestration, composition, and even professionalism are fading, but the LAFCI is here to make sure these “secrets” don’t die, and I think they're doing a marvelous job!
I want to thank the faculty and staff at LAFCI for continuing to make this opportunity available to composers. Many thanks especially to Angel Velez and Conrad Pope for your mentorship and guidance throughout my life; without you, the career path I’ve taken might never have occurred to me!