A Conversation with Christophe Beck

The Academy of Scoring Arts is excited to welcome Christophe Beck as our guest this Saturday morning, August 3rd! He and his orchestrator, ASA board member Tim Davies, will talk about his process, and how he works in collaboration with his team. Beck has a long rich history of shepherding people on his team from young assistants to accomplished collaborators, co-composers and composers who go on to venture out on their own, including previous ASA guests Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson (Cobra Kai, Weird).

The event will take place at the First Baptist Church of Glendale on Saturday, Aug 3, 2024, from 10am-1pm. A light breakfast with coffee will be provided, followed by lunch at 1pm, included in the ticket price. As always, we encourage our members to attend in person if possible!

Christophe Beck is a world-renowned film and TV composer who has defined the sound of iconic films including Frozen, The Hangover franchise, The Muppets, and Pitch Perfect. He also founded the SESAC Scores: Beck Diversity Project, committed to creating opportunities for underrepresented composers to contribute to and advance the field of film and television composing.

He’s well known for his score to the Golden Globe®- and Oscar®-winning animated film Frozen, the soundtrack for which achieved Platinum status 11 weeks after its release, sold more than one million copies, and reigned No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart for five weeks. Alongside his Emmy-winning work on the cult classic series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Beck is notable for his high-profile blockbuster action features and series including the Antman Trilogy starring Paul Rudd, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the Disney+ series Hawkeye, and marvel studios’ WandaVision – which received four nominations for best Original score from the HMMA, WSA, SCL, and the Primetime Emmys. His collaboration with acclaimed director Doug Liman resulted in two high-grossing action features starring Tom Cruise:Edge of Tomorrow and American Made.  Beck’s catalogue of blockbuster action comedies include the Warner Bros. feature Due Date as well as Date Night and Free Guy, both directed by Shawn Levy.

Beck’s diverse body of work also includes acclaimed dramas such as McG’s We Are Marshall, Under the Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane, Shana Feste’s romantic drama Endless Love, the Good Kill starring Ethan Hawke, and the indie feature Saved! starring Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, and Macaulay Culkin. Chris Beck’s ongoing collaboration with director Daniel Barnz cultivated two indie dramas as well: Phoebe in Wonderland and Cake starring Jennifer Anniston. Beck’s music extends further into award winning documentary films such as Waiting For Superman and the Netflix produced docuseries Arnold. He also scored three critically acclaimed animated features: The Peanuts Movie directed by Steve Martino, DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls, and the Oscar nominated Netflix animated feature Nimona. 

Most recently he scored Doug Liman’s Roadhouse starring Jake Gyllenhaal which premiered at SXSW and Jerry Seinfeld’s Unfrosted. Up next for Beck is the highly anticipated Marvel series: Agatha All Along starring Kathryn Hahn. He also wrote music for 20th Century’s Up Here, a musical rom-com developed by academy award winning songwriters Kristen Anderson–Lopez and Robert Lopez. 

The Canadian composer studied music at Yale and attended the USC film scoring program under the tutelage of composers such as Jerry Goldsmith. He started composing in television at the personal recommendation of Disney music legend Buddy Baker.