The Talent…
Nicholas Dodd
Recognised for his distinguished body of film work as orchestrator and conductor, including several of the James Bond film scores, Nicholas Dodd is a graduate with honours from the Royal College of Music in London. In 1987 He conducted the Houston Symphony Orchestra as a highlight of their Mostly Mozart Festival, followed by conducting a recording with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios of 'Look Homeward Angel' by Richard Adler.
He conducted the LSO once again with Procol Harum in 'An Evening with Procul Harum' performed at the Barbican Centre in London and again with Procul Harum the Halle Orchestra and Choir. In addition, Mr. Dodd orchestrated and conducted songs by Gary Brooker of Procol Harum with the LSO for the CD entitled 'The Long Goodbye' on RCA-Victor.
Years 2003 - 2005 he conducted and arranged for Russell Watson three of his albums,followed by the award winning album for Katherine Jenkins, Serenade. 2006 saw Nicholas conducting the Philharmonia a series of film music concerts.
Mr Dodd's feature film credit list is extensive but most notable are: 'Stargate', 'Independence Day', 'Godzilla', 'Lethal Weapon Four', 'The Mummy', plus the James Bond Films, 'Tomorrow Never Dies, 'The World is not Enough' 'Die Another Day' and 'Casino Royale'. Recent projects include composing for "Renaissance" a sci-fi thriller set in Paris 2054, and writing the score for "Treasure Island", which was nominated for a Grammy.
In summer of 2006 Nicholas first met John Barry at Abbey Road Studios whilst recording his orchestrations of John's music arranged for the "Ten Tenors" and orchestra. It was shortly after this that Nicholas's first concert conducting John's music took place in April of 2007 at The Royal festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, there after followed many concerts and since then ( apart from orchestrating and conducting films including "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader", "Avatar" "Paul" and the most recent Bond film "Quantum of Solace" ) he has conducted concerts for John in France, Vienna, Ireland, and lastly (2010) in Ghent. In all of these concerts John's music was received with rapturous applause. Nicholas's most recent concert was The John Barry Memorial Concert at The royal Albert Hall.
Stu Kennedy
Stu works closely with the world's leading orchestral sample developers Tonehammer, Projectsam, Spitfire Audio & EastWest sample library developers, developing, testing or distributing their libraries. He owns nearly all available libraries and is rapidly becoming the industry's leading expert on commercially (and non-commercial) orchestral sound-sets.
In addition to his work with Nicholas Dodd on Nania and Morning Glory, he also works with composer Murray Gold on Torchwood USA and with Spooks & Limitless composer Paul Leonard Morgan. As a composer his credits include arrangements for the Olympics AVIVA, Comic Relief and CBBC Glee club and producing sound-alike backing tracks for shows such as Fox studio's American Idol and BBC talent shows.
Stu also trains composers one-on-one on how to get realistic mockups, from arrangements through to dynamics, articulations and music production techniques majoring on room emulation and reverbs.
David Hearn
David's recent work includes music for television shows such as "Friday Night Lights", "Dancing On Ice" and "American Idol"; TV advert spots for Waitrose and Toyota, and live events like the Wella ITVA Awards. David also wrote the score for Neil Horner's short film "Light Rain", in support of Macmillan Cancer Relief.
In addition to writing his own music, David also works with other composers to help bring their muscial vision to life, usually through orchestral mockups or additional arrangements. Recently mockups for feature films include "Paul" and "The Chronicles of Narnia", and on arrangements for live tours, including Westlife, Katherine Jenkins and Kylie Minogue.
Nick Ryan
Nick Ryan is an award-winning composer, sound designer and audio-media specialist. Nick's unique approach to music and sound and his core interest in using sound and music to describe visual 'form' has resulted in his collaboration with diverse disciplines of film drama and documentary, motion graphics, animation and interactive media, orchestral ensemble and radio.
Projects include Film Four short 'Spin', UK feature 'Rabbit Fever' Louis Theroux's 'Law and Disorder' series, the generic soundtrack for Sony PS2, Odeon Cinema titles, MTV's 'M2' channel idents, MTV News Titles and World Aids Day identity. Nick worked for three years with 'BBC Imagineering' as an Audio Media Research Consultant where he was responsible for the conception of creative future applications for sound in broadcasting.
Projects include Film Four short 'Spin', UK feature 'Rabbit Fever' Louis Theroux's 'Law and Disorder' series, the generic soundtrack for Sony PS2, Odeon Cinema titles, MTV's 'M2' channel idents, MTV News Titles and World Aids Day identity.
In 2004 he received a British Academy Award for 'The Dark House', a groundbreaking interactive radio drama that he devised and mixed live on BBC Radio 4 in September 2003. During this time he co-authored two Government reports 'The Future of Music' and 'The Future of Radio' which predicted future global trends in the creation, distribution and consumption of music and radio.
In 2007 Nick released 'Cortical Songs' - a four-part 'symphony' for twenty-four piece string orchestra based on theoretical models developed in 1950s, which describe the rhythmic 'firing' of groups of neurons in the cortex of the brain. The album features remixes by Thom Yorke, Simon Tong, Gabriel Prokofiev and others.
In 2008 Nick won the prestigious $100,000 'PRS Foundation New Music Award' for the 'Fragmented Orchestra' project - a giant sound installation that captured fragments of sound from 24 locations across the UK and transmitted them to the FACT Gallery in Liverpool.
In September 2009 Nick received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Plymouth University.