Unique experiences - Composer Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
I think one of the unique experiences I always enjoy is when I speak about my compositions, when I'm able to do workshops or seminars, or when I'm a motivational speaker and I talk about what my compositions have meant for me and how and why I composed the music that I compose. What is so fascinating, and I've had this happen multiple times, with my meditation relaxation music, I will have mothers come up to me and tell me how their children were throwing tantrums or having a fit or having a bad day and then they put on my meditation relaxation music and instantly it calmed their children and their children actually were no longer angry and upset and the mothers said it was because of the music and how the music was so comforting and calming and I love hearing those experiences.
Video 2 Transcript
One of the unique experiences I had as a film composer was the day I met John Williams and spent some time with him. As anyone knows, he's probably the greatest film composer living today. He was there to record and rehearse with the London National Philharmonic, and I was there also to record and work with him. The day he was rehearsing the music for his concert at Royal Albert Hall, I was invited to come to the rehearsal. During the rehearsal, I met John Williams. He was taking a break, and we sat in the artist booth, talking for the longest time. That was unbelievable. He's such a kind person and wanted to know about me and my career and my family. It was amazing.
Video 3 Transcript
Boy, I've had a lot of unique experiences as a composer, I think. I mean, first of all, you know, seeing my music pop up in random places, like even on a game show like Jeopardy, you know, that's amazing. Or seeing choirs perform my music on shows like America's Got Talent. Or seeing acrobatic troops doing acrobatic routines to my music on America's Got Talent. You know, that's amazing. It's kind of fun to see. I've traveled the world, I've worked with a lot of interesting people, a lot of interesting musicians out there, you know, formed some great friendships, had some great collaborations. You know, gotten to conduct my music at Carnegie Hall. I mean, you know, there's a lot that can sort of enrich your life. And there's always new things that I can sort of get into that, that excite me, you know, writing for stage, theater, ballet, opera, more concert music, writing a concerto, a symphony, you know, all of these things are things I haven't done yet. And that's what keeps me active and excited as an artist.
Video 4 Transcript
So this is a unique experience I had just recently. I wrote a song called Certain Women. It's a song for Christian women, about Christian women. And I put it out and it's been out for a year or two, I don't know how long. But anyway, I had a nun from Krakow, Poland get a hold of me and she actually sent me a video of herself singing in sort of broken English, Certain Women, while she played the guitar. Now, she and I have completely different lives. We don't live the same kind of a life. We don't belong to the same religion. We live in very different countries, far, far away from each other. And yet we are both believers. And we have a friendship now. Because of that, because we both believe in Christ, we are sisters in the gospel of Christ. And that's a unique and wonderful experience to me, to be her friend.
Video 5 Transcript
One unique experience I had was recording the music I'd arranged for an album called Beyond. I'd written arrangements of several hymns depicting the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the last cue of the day to record was sort of a medley, a feeling of rising, of growing, and becoming. I didn't have enough time at the end of the recording session to finish it with rehearsals. The orchestra didn't rehearse, literally did not rehearse. Time was running out and I had to finish at 5 p.m. or I'd go into overtime, which was an enormous fee. So at the last minute, we just said, okay, you've never seen this music, but we're going to record it. And I just remember as we recorded, turning each page, hoping no mistakes would happen, and we finished it on time. That was my favorite of all the cuts.
Video 6 Transcript
A follow-up to my unique experience with John Williams. As we walked down from the artist booth to see the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London, we were both greeted with musicians that came up to both of us and said, we're excited to see you here and can't wait to record with you and so on. And as I was standing there, a waiter came up, handed John a cocktail and handed me a ginger ale. My reputation as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had filtered out to the various studios and complexes and I didn't have to apologize for saying, no, I don't want a cocktail. It just automatically came that way. I thought, what an experience. I'm standing with John Williams and I'm just like an equal at this moment. It's the most amazing, wonderful, humbling experiences.
