L.A. Newsbriefs

Another year has passed, and what a year it was. Over the course of 2012, we held 18 events for the Los Angeles community, including a hiphop panel, a hang at the National Association of Music Merchants (or NAMM) show, and three Women in Tune events hosted by Eve Nelson ’86 and myself. At one event, 500 alumni and students attended. To top it off, our annual holiday party drew 260 people, including Jess Delgado ’11 and Jason Joseph ’02 who provided the music. Thanks to all for making 2012 a spectacular year.

L.A. alumni have also been busy with their careers. Here are some recent highlights. In the fall, Terry Wollman ’80 released A Joyful Noise, a holiday album featuring Abraham Laboriel Sr. ’72, Eric Marienthal ’79, John Robinson ’75, Mindi Abair ’91, and Ellis Hall, among others. Visit www.terrywollman.com.

Producer and songwriter Bleu ’96 saw his fifth studio album, To Hell with You, reach its funding goal through PledgeMusic within eight hours. His songwriting and producing landed major-label cuts in 2012 with Tristan Prettyman (Capitol), Chris Mann (Universal), Daniel Powter (EMI), Meat Loaf (Sony), and more. Bleu also wrote an original pop song for the ABC hit show Happy Endings for a January episode.

Marcelo Feldman ’06 played upright bass in the NYADA Orchestra on season four, episode nine of Glee. He also played guitar on episode 11, which aired in January. Philip Meneses ’10 played guitars on “Black Fly Boy” a track on Kendrick Lamar’s newest album and accompanied Cher Lloyd on the Ryan Seacrest radio show. He also plays guitar for hip-hop artist Chali 2na’s backing band House of Vibe. Neara Russell ’10, keyboardist and backing vocalist for Hollywood Records artist Bridgit Mendler, finished a six-month long tour with a performance on The X-Factor. Other highlights included performances at Madison Square Garden, MuchMusic (Canada) and on Good Morning America.

Congratulations to film composer Sharon Farber ’97 for winning the music award at the 2012 Women’s International Film and Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Awards. Pinar Toprak ’00 was among the nominees. In other film and TV music news, Steven Stern ’90 produced and remixed music for the trailers to the movies Lincoln and Django Unchained, and produced a new version of the “Monday Night Football Theme” for ESPN. His songs were placed in the shows Jane by Design, Smash, and Awake.

Ryan Shore ’96 was nominated for a Square Enix Music Award for best score in the Retro/Remixed category for the game Spy Hunter, a reboot of the 1983 video game, which was released in October 2012. The score was released by WaterTower Music, Warner Bros. Entertainment’s inhouse soundtrack label for which Joe Kara ’05 serves as the vice president of marketing.

In early December, the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced nominations for its 40th Annual Annie Awards. Among the nominees for Best Music in an Animated Television Production were Alf Clausen ’66 for The Simpsons and Freddie Wiedmann ’05 for Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

Finally, I am working with Ben Maitland-Lewis ’05 to develop a new digital résumé platform called “Presskit.to” for the L.A. community. For more information, visit www. presskit.to/berkleela. That’s all for now. See you at our next event!