In 2014, Richard’s song Bidwell’s Path was designated a Finalist / Instrumental Music Category in the UK Songwriting Contest.  Now in 2015, 3 of his songs are considered Semi-Finalists: Chicxulub: Dinosaur Musings on the Meaning of Life, Warrior’s Hymn &  Losing Love.

Faerie’s Embrace‘  status is still pending in the Open Category. Stay tuned for updates as the contest tightens!

My song Faerie’s Embrace just made #1 on Broadjam’s Top 10 Celtic List!  Also hits #2 song on Top World & #6 on Top California lists…

   It was a pleasure for me to have worked with Chris King, scoring his amazing, historical short film about “The Killing of Mary Surratt”, portions of which are to be aired on the History Channel’s upcoming 4-part documentary on “The Civil War: In Color”. Congratulations Chris and Heather King!

Chris King, Director:
“We’re very happy and proud to be a provider of film footage of the Lincoln assassination conspirators from our short film “The Killing of Mary Surratt” for a special 4-part documentary called “The Civil War: In Color.” The doc will be broadcast on The History Channel and a multitude of other formats.”

TRAILER

Just finished (last week) working on a new cartoon short based on the characters from Frozen.  I was featured as orchestral violinist.  A funny sentimental story, a Birthday Cake and several magical sneezes – what more can you ask for?

2014 was the first year that featured a full symphonic orchestra performing 15-minute musical tributes to all 5 oscar-nominated movie scores, with the composers themselves conducting! (including John Williams & Alexander Desplat)

Also, each of the year’s nominated songs was performed, most often by the original artists.  In the photo below, the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez offer their passionate version of their huge hit Let It Go! from the movie, Frozen.  I can be seen behind Kristen to the right:

Best score went deservedly to Steven Price’s soundtrack to Gravity…

In late November 2014, I was at Sony studios (old MGM) recording a film scored by Danny Elfman. I signed a Non-Disclosure, so let’s just say it was sultry, atmospheric music to a picture based on a highly popular book whose title certainly does not feature “many hues of black and white” ! No truth to the rumor that the Marquis de Sade produced…

One day while working on this feature, all computers at Sony had been hacked and shut down! Evidently, the digital assault was tied to the intended Christmas Day release of The Interview, the comedy about an attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. North Korea had threatened Sony that it would be launching an attack, in this case a cyber one. Below is a photo of 1 of the 4 helicopters that hovered over the studio for hours!

(close up:)             

(Click picture for movie!)  Photo by Dawn Simmons

Bidwell’s Path has just hit FINALIST status in the UK Songwriting Contest for the year 2014.  Appropriately, there are a lot of Celtic, Dark Age, and English musical references in this tune.