Funny stories - Composer Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
A funny story that I can share about my music is that I compose a lot of instrumental piano music for piano students and I was adjudicating with another piano teacher at a competition and one of the students stood up prior to performing her piece and she was standing for the piano and she said I will now play the jazz song by Gerald Simon and then she sat down and the piano teacher who was adjudicating with me leaned over to me and she said she has no idea who you are and that you're actually the composer who composed the song that she's about to play and I laughed and said I don't think she does and I think if she did she'd be a lot more worried about performing in front of the composer but she did a fantastic job and it was so great and we laughed about it afterwards.
Video 2 Transcript
One of my funniest experiences was in a film that I was chosen to write the music for. I also was the sound engineer and there was a scene that I was then asked to perform a stunt as an actor also. So I was dressed up like an enemy of the wig and everything and I had to stand in front of my little wiki up that I had as an actor and I stood out in front of the camera and clapped the scene to start and gave given it a title. So that was the sound engineer part. Then I turned into an actor and tried to defend my my herd of horses and one of the actors comes up and puts a spear in me and I had to perform that stunt in a way that looked real. It wasn't real, I didn't get touched but that was that was one of the craziest scenes.
Video 3 Transcript
Probably the funniest thing that ever happened to me, slightly humiliating at the time, but now I can look back on it and laugh, is when we were doing the world premiere of my piece, Sonia di Volare, which is the theme song to Civilization VI. We performed it with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and with various choirs supporting as well, including the Angel City Chorale. During the climax, I got so excited that my baton flew out of my hand into the audience, right? So I had to finish the piece just conducting without a baton. And then after the piece was over, I turned around and I bowed. And then I had to watch as the baton was handed from somebody in the audience to the last desk of the first violins. And it was excruciating because, you know, you could see the baton slowly get passed up the desks, all the way up to the concertmaster. It took like 45 seconds to get my baton back, and it was just so humiliating.
Video 4 Transcript
At the Deseret Book Artist Appreciation Banquet, I just finished the music to The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, and President Faust was the spearhead or the ultimate producer of the film, and he loved my music, and we became friends. He was the keynote speaker at this banquet, and in the middle of his speech he says, and we just finished the film, The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd. Meryl, stand up, he said, and had me come forward and stand next to him. Sing me a couple bars. I said, which part you want, the French horns or the strings? I was totally dumbfounded. Sing a few bars, and I tried to sing something. It was crazy, but embarrassing, but wonderful at the same time.
