I was delighted when The New York Times asked me to write a piece about (then up-and-coming) composer Alexandre Desplat. At the time, he was much talked-about for his scores for The Queen (shortly to be Oscar nominated) and The Painted Veil (shortly to win the Golden Globe). This story also appeared in the International Herald-Tribune. Director Stephen Frears is always fun to interview; he’s so down-to-earth and practical about music.
Tag Archives: New York Times
Giacchino does “Mission: Impossible”
Another fun story for The New York Times: Hanging out at the Sony scoring stage while Michael Giacchino records his score for Mission: Impossible 3. J.J. Abrams and original Mission composer Lalo Schifrin also talked to me for the story.
John Williams scoring “Geisha” and “Munich”
Here’s a New York Times piece I wrote about composer John Williams, who was about to tie Alfred Newman’s long-standing record of 45 Oscar nominations for the scores of Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich.
Mancini’s “Pink Panther” redux
For the Steve Martin remake of The Pink Panther, composer Christophe Beck not only embraced the original Henry Mancini theme, he even sought out the original saxophone player, Plas Johnson, to play the solo. I talked to them, and to the composer’s daughter Monica Mancini, for this fun story about that classic tune.