Music in Advertising with Elizabeth Myers

Elizabeth Myers joins us to host an INFOrum on music in advertising. She presents what it means to create a powerful musical underscore that not only makes an impact and tells the story, but also sells a product. We’ll focus on rich orchestration techniques and epic styles used by high profile brands like Apple and United Airlines. We also discuss how to stay authentic to musical genres and respect the client’s branding.

About Elizabeth Myers

Elizabeth Myers is a musician, composer, pianist and educator. She is best known for her collaborations with her husband John Trivers on the music for award-winning commercials and films. Their Los Angeles-based music company Trivers Myers Music, established in 1984, has composed and arranged music for many clients, and they have received multiple Clio Awards. Notably, they have arranged and produced the music for several commercials for United Airlines, one of which, “A Life”, is a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art. In 2011, the theme for the CBS Evening News that Myers co-wrote with Trivers and Alan Pasqua was relaunched for the broadcasts that feature Scott Pelley as news anchor.

Myers earned a Bachelors Degree in Composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and then a Masters Degree in Music from UNC Chapel Hills She then studied composition with Nadia Boulanger at the “Ecole d’arts americains” and later privately with Jacques Rouvier in Paris. On returning to the States, she was hired as the Musical Director of the Broadway show “Grease” in New York, which is where she met her future husband, John Trivers.

Myers has conducted members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in original scores for films and other compositions, co-wrote the song “Shakin’” with Eddie Money, for which she received (in 2006) a “Millionair” award from BMI for one million air-plays.

For the theatre, Myers’s original score for David Rabe’s play “The Orphan” was published by Samuel French and her orchestration of Agnes de Mille’s ballet “Texas Fourth” has been performed by the State Street Ballet Company. Myers began her professional music career as an assistant to DeMille and is proud to be returning to the world of dance through her collaboration with Julia Gleich for the CounterPointe Series at the Brooklyn Ballet.

A dedicated proponent of both classical and popular music, Myers used her versatile background to create a class for UCLA Extension entitled “Put Your Music to Work: Composition for Commercials” which has become a highly praised addition to the UCLA Certificate of Film Scoring program. As of 2017, Myers is in her twelfth year of teaching students what it means to create a powerful underscore that not only makes an impact and tells the story, but also sells a product. As she says, “with subtle emotion tugs at the heart.”