Short Liszt, Op. 2: The Two Hour Composing Challenge Winners!

August 24, 2020

On August 16, 2020, we hosted our first online composing challenge called Short Liszt! We provided the participants with three musical parameters and they had two hours to compose, mockup, and produce up to 40 seconds of music. We then met on Zoom with other members of the ASA community to play the compositions live and vote using these three parameters:

1. Use of “ingredients” – did the composer use them in a creative way?

2. Composition quality – is it an interesting/effective piece of music?

3. Production – mix/technical execution

4. Originality

5. Mood – Does the composition evoke the mood of the inspiration photo?

Here is a video recap of all of the submissions!

We want to congratulate our three winners!

 

First Place: Wolf Wein

Composition: Cat’s got your tongue?

Wolf Wein is a composer, sound designer, multi instrumentalist working in media music. He started out in Innsbruck, Austria – a beautiful town in the middle of the Alps with a surprisingly rich music scene. First he worked with bands – a lot – as a bass player and writing songs, arranging them, recording them, getting deeply into all aspects of music creation.
By 2001 his bass playing brought him all the way to California. He earned a Masters of Music in bass performance and honed his skills on guitar, piano and most recently the wonderful GuitarViol.
Wolf started scoring video games in 2003. The diversity of genres and challenges is ever inspiring. He often was also responsible for all the sound design and voice over production, delivering the full audio package. A highlight for Wolf’s game scores was always writing music for the in game movies. So the next goal on the horizon is to work on animated scores.
So far his credits include 40+ handheld video games for a wide variety of properties like tie ins to blockbuster movies Wall-E, Cars, Ratatouille, DisneyToon’s Planes; games accompanying TV series like Spongebob, Trolls, Ultimate Spiderman and Transformers Rescue Bots. Also a Sonic-X game, Nascar racing and several Leapfrog original content games.
Wolf currently lives in Los Angeles in the beautiful Shadow Hills neighborhood. For more details and listening examples please visit wolftrackaudio.com.

 

Second Place: Jesse Carmichael

Composition: An Ode To Eternal Youth

JESSE CARMICHAEL IS A CO-FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE GRAMMY AWARD WINNING BAND MAROON 5. HE LIVES IN LOS ANGELES WITH HIS FAMILY AND THEIR TWO GOLDEN DOODLES.  HE LOVES MUSIC AND FILM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third Place: Jeffrey Gold

Composition: I Can’t Believe I Found Love On The Underground

Jeffrey creates film music in a variety of styles ranging from symphonic to ambient and electronic to minimalist.

Winner (3rd Place) in the 2020 Academy of Scoring Arts (ASA) Short Liszt Op. 2 Two Hour Composing Challenge, Winner of the 2019 Akademia Music Award for Best Song (Ambient/Instrumental), Nominee in the 2017 American Songwriting Awards in the Instrumental category, Winner of the 2016 Akademia Music Award for Best Ambient/Instrumental Song, Winner of the 2015 Akademia Music Award for Best Instrumental/Acoustic Song, Winner of the 2013, 2012, and 2006 Best of State Awards for Original Music Composition, Winner of the Silver Medal in the 2011 Park City Film Music Festival, Winner of the Jury Choice Gold Medal for Excellence in the 2004 Park City Film Music Festival, and Semi-Finalist in the 2004 Moondance International Film Festival filmscoring competition, Jeffrey Gold’s works have premiered at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Centres in Cardiff, Wales and in Piccadilly, London, on television in the U.K., on PBS television in the U.S., on the radio and at international film festivals.

In 2005 he was invited to participate in the 19th Annual Sundance Institute Independent Producers Conference and the 3rd Annual Sundance Institute Theatre Program/Johnny Mercer Foundation Masterclass with composers and performers Melissa Manchester, Jimmy Webb, Michael Rupert, Margaret Whiting, Charles Strouse, Billy Stritch, and Don Rebic. He has had additional masterclasses with Academy award winner Hans Zimmer, film composer/orchestrator/arranger Conrad Pope (Star Wars, Munich, Memoirs of a Geisha), two-time Emmy award-winning film composer/arranger Hummie Mann (Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Year of the Comet), Academy award nominee Danny Elfman, multiple Grammy and Oscar-winning musical theatre lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Wicked), film composer Reuven Herman (Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars [tv]), Grammy Award-winning songwriter Diane Warren, award-winning film composer Douglas Romayne (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), award-winning film composer & Sundance Institute alumnus Vincent Gillioz, and Clio award-winning guitar virtuoso Vince Lauria.

Among his influences are film composing legends John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Harry Gregson-Williams, Alan Silvestri, John Barry, Georges Delerue, Vangelis, and Peter Gabriel and classical composers such as Holst, Barber, Elgar, and Satie—to name a limited few.

Educated at the Cambridge University, University of Utah, and Westminster College, he is a lifetime member of the Cambridge University Film & Television Society (CFTV), a full member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Producers (ASCAP) since 1999, a full member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL), a member of the Academy of Scoring Arts (ASA), a member of the American Film Institute (AFI), a member of Film Independent (FI), and an associate member of the Recording Academy (Grammys).

He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.