Celebration of the Reel Change Grant Program on Thursday, October 27th
Hosted at the private residence of Harry Gregson-Williams
ABOUT REEL CHANGE
The Reel Change Film Fund was established in 2020 as a $1 million, five-year grant and mentorship program. The program is powered by SESAC and composer Christophe Beck and administered by New Music USA. It supports film projects currently in production by providing additional funding, gear, and mentoring to assist underrepresented composers at a pivotal moment in their careers. Currently, four to six grants averaging $20,000 are allocated each year of the program. Supported expenses include composer compensation, musician fees, mix and mastering fees, studio expenses, orchestration, production equipment, and more.
Grantees are chosen by an advisory board made up of leading composers of film music, including Christophe Beck, Jongnic “JB” Bontemps, Kris Bowers, Miriam Cutler, Chanda Dancy, Tony Morales, and Pinar Toprak. The advisory board offers additional support and mentorship for grantees.
Sponsors for this initiative, which is administered by New Music USA, are SESAC, Amazon Studios, Spitfire Audio, Steinberg, and Native Instruments. Spitfire Audio donates $1K in software packages to each grantee and promotional support of the Reel Change program. Steinberg provides hardware and software packages. Native Instruments provides the flagship music production suite Komplete Collector’s Edition for each grantee. Amazon Studios has made a generous donation to help fund several grants, and SESAC has donated $1 million in start-up funds for the program.
FROM HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS
For our first fundraiser, Harry Gregson-Williams will auction off ten days (valued at $1,000 per day) in his world-class mix room, located at The Village in Los Angeles. Scored mixed in Studio N include Disney’s Mulan (2020), Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel and House of Gucci, HBO’s The Gilded Age, and the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Return to Space.
Complete specs for this beautiful space are available here.
DONATE TODAY
If you can’t make it and would like to make a donation to the Reel Change program, please click here. All donations go through New Music USA, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that runs an array of artist development programs which support a thriving and robust music community. Your donation is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
WANT TO BE A MENTOR?
Email [email protected].
For more information, please contact:
Ami Dang
(410) 935-5188
[email protected]
About the Advisory Board & Partners
Advisory Board
KRIS BOWERS is a Grammy-nominated, Emmy Award-winning, and Juilliard-educated pianist and composer who creates genre-defying music that pays homage to his jazz roots with inflections of alternative and R&B influences. Bowers’ work as a film and television composer is a testament to his versatility as an artist. Bowers has established himself at the forefront of Hollywood’s emerging generation of composers, and throughout his career, he has consistently championed an art practice guided by multi-disciplinary collaboration. krisbowers.com
JONGNIC “JB” BONTEMPS is a uniquely modern film composer, harmonizing a classical education with his rich tech background as a maestro of Silicon Valley to write everything from the hip-hop infused score for the Tribeca-favorite documentary United Skates, to rousing additional music for Creed II. He’s been the go-to composer for the latter film’s director, Steven Caple Jr., including the score for the coming-of-age drama, The Land, where he also produced the song “This Bitter Land” for Nas and Erykah Badu. bontempsmusic.net
MIRIAM CUTLER is a three-time Emmy-nominated composer, is passionate about documentaries: HBO, CNN, PBS, Sundance, Emmy, and Oscar nominated films: RBG, Love Gilda, Dark Money, The Hunting Ground, Ethel, Lost in La Mancha, Poster Girl, KingsPoint, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib… Advisor/ Sundance Documentary Composers Lab, juror Sundance, AMPAS Documentary Branch Exec Committee, Film Expert/USC Cinema/US State Department’s American Film Showcase. TV Academy Music Branch Exec committee, former SCL Board and Co-Founder Alliance for Women Film Composers. miriamcutler.com
CHANDA DANCY is both an accomplished film and television composer with over 16 years of experience and an emerging classical concert composer. Arts Boston named her one of “10 Contemporary Black Composers You Should Know.” She is known for her work with Aleem Hossain’s sci-fi feature “After We Leave” which has garnered critical acclaim around the globe. She is also known for her work with Wong Fu Productions’ debut feature “Everything Before Us”, starring Randall Park (Fresh Off The Boat). chandadancy.com
TONY MORALES is an Emmy-nominated composer known for his orchestral scores and textural sound for feature films and television, including Bloodline and Scorpion. His latest project, action-thriller The Fugitive is hailed as the new Quibi flagship series. Morales earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for the mini-series Hatfields & McCoys (co-composed with John Debney), and scored all three seasons of Disney’s Elena Of Avalor for which he received multiple Daytime Emmy nominations as well as an Annie Award nomination. Morales has composed music for documentaries including Benedict Men, The Definition of Insanity, and The Dominican Dream. tonymoralesmusic.com
PINAR TOPRAK is one of the most refreshing voices in music composition today, with a diverse body of work spanning across film, television, and video games. She has composed for major superhero sagas like Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel, DC’s Stargirl, and SY-FY’s Superman prequel series Krypton. She also scored HBO’s six-part docuseries McMillions, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, as well as Epic Game’s massively popular online video game Fortnite. pinartoprak.com
Partners (SESAC & New Music USA)
CHRISTOPHE BECK, an LA-based, Canadian composer, started piano lessons at five, and by eleven he was learning Bee Gees songs by ear and performing with his first-ever band, the unfortunately-named Chris and The Cupcakes. During high school he studied piano, saxophone, and drums, and wrote many tender 80’s love ballads. Beck studied music at Yale, and attended USC’s prestigious film-scoring program, where he studied with Jerry Goldsmith. Beck scored the second season of WB’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and received Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for his score to the Buffy episode, “Becoming, Part 1.” In 2000, the cheerleading comedy Bring It On launched Beck’s film career, which includes such diverse credits as Under the Tuscan Sun, Edge of Tomorrow, Crazy Stupid Love, Pitch Perfect, and the Hangover trilogy. More recently, Chris scored the Oscar® and Grammy®-winning animated film Frozen, and Marvel’s Ant-Man films. Christophe works out of his studio in Santa Monica, California. christophebeck.com
SESAC Performing Rights Organization currently licenses the public performances of more than 1 million songs on behalf of its 30,000 affiliated songwriters, composers, and music publishers, which include such familiar names as Adele, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, R.E.M., RUSH, Disclosure, Zac Brown, Rosanne Cash, Mumford & Sons, Burna Boy, Shirley Caesar, Kesha, and Lalah Hathaway. SESAC has long represented the music on some of TV’s biggest shows including Grey’s Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, Parenthood, Dateline NBC, Dr. Phil, Seinfeld, and The Doctors among many others, and is the PRO of choice among many of Hollywood’s most sought-after film and television composers, including Christophe Beck, Danny Lux, Jon Ehrlich, Dennis C. Brown, Bruce Miller, Randy Newman, Paul Shaffer, among many others. sesac.com
NEW MUSIC USA supports the sounds of tomorrow by nurturing the creation, performance, and appreciation of new music for adventurous listeners around the world. We empower and connect US-based music makers, organizations, and audiences by providing funding through our Project Grants; fostering new connections through our programs; deepening knowledge through our online magazine, NewMusicBox; and working as an advocate for the field. New Music USA works in collaboration with its community in response to pressing needs and to amplify the diverse voices of music creators. New Music USA envisions a thriving and equitable ecosystem for new music throughout the United States. newmusicusa.org
Additional Sponsors
