Joseph Trapanese

Joseph Trapanese is a Los Angeles-based composer of music for film, television, theater, and concerts.

Hailed by the New York Times as “precise and evocative,” (November 2007) his music is heard in feature films, network and cable television as well as in productions at NYU, UCLA, on NPR, and in off-broadway plays in New York City. It has been performed by three GRAMMY-winning artists and awarded by ASCAP, the American Music Center, Yale University, UCLA, the Henry Mancini Institute and Downbeat Magazine. In 2007 Joseph won the first annual Jerry Goldsmith Award from UCLA.

Film Music

Joseph’s recent film work includes numerous shorts and additional music for the independent features Necessary Evil and The Last Word, as well as orchestrations for the Lifetime feature The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Nickelodeon’s first prime time family movie Gym Teacher; and additional orchestrations for the features What Happens in Vegas and Traitor. As an arranger and music programmer he has worked on the Fox sitcom The Loop, the ABC reality series American Inventor, and Disney’s original movie sensation Jump In. His work as a music production assistant includes Fred Claus for Warner Brothers, Rendition for New Line Cinema, and Cashmere Mafia for ABC.

Concert Music

Music for concerts includes commissions from the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, the Yale School of Music, and The Henry Mancini Institute; a recording with The New Hudson Saxophone Quartet; and performances by eighth blackbird, Tactus, Fireworks, The String Orchestra of New York City, The New Jersey Symphony Community Chorus, and conductors Alexander Mickelthwate and Vince Mendoza.

Music for Live Theater

Joseph's music for theater is performed primarily in New York City, most notably in productions by TACT (The Actor's Company Theater) with director Scott Alan Evans. Productions with TACT include Milan Stitt's The Runner Stumbles (whose music was praised by the New York Times as "Precise and evocative... wistful, ringing melodies.”) and Edward Bond's The Sea. Other work includes songs and score for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, a joint production between the Atlantic Theater Company and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (directed by Paul Urcioli); underscore for the 2008 Los Angeles revival of Lawrence Fishburne's play Riff Raff with director Hezekiah Lewis; and music for dance with choreographer Sheetal Gandhi.

Education

Beginning Fall 2008, Joseph will teach electronic music in the film scoring department at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. He completed his B.M. at the Manhattan School of Music and M.A. at UCLA with support from the Henry Mancini fund. Teachers include Giampaolo Bracali, Paul Chihara, Roger Bourland, Jack Smalley, and Martin Bresnick, as well as masterclasses with Louis Andriessen, Aaron Jay Kernis, Julia Wolfe, Mark Snow, Bruce Broughton, and Ira Newborn.

External links

* [http://www.joecomposer.com Official Website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/josephtrapanese Joseph Trapanese's MySpace Page]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2468967/ Joseph Trapanese at the IMDB]