L.A. Newsbriefs

As always, our L.A.-based alumni have been busy in all quarters of the music industry. Here’s a rundown of what a few have been working on.

Composer Matthias Weber ’91 was nominated in the Best Music category at the 2012 Austrian Academy Awards for his score to Wolfgang Murnberger’s Third Reich–era feature My Best Enemy (Mein Bester Feind). Together with acclaimed singer/songwriter and composer Lisbeth Scott, he co-composed the score for the award-winning Native American drama “Shouting Secrets,” which won its seventh Best Picture award on the festival circuit.

Sound designer Trevor Bresaw ’07, who has worked at Activision since 2008, was promoted to senior audio designer in Activision’s Central Audio department which supports all their SFX, music, Foley, and voice-over needs. His recent game credits include Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, and Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, on which he served as the score supervisor for Hans Zimmer.

Ian Murray ’04, the president of Migratory Music, launched the Ovation Tower, the industry’s first live digital-music distribution and HD advertising kiosk. The technology enables concertgoers to purchase and download studio-quality recordings of live performances at the venue. Now installed in three Southern California venues, the platform’s inception occurred during a Berklee Music Business/Management class and was recently featured on KTLA, a local news station.

Joel Goodman ’84 was nominated in the Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music & Sound category as part of the 33rd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. The nomination was for his score to the film Saving Pelican #895, a story that chronicles the journey of an oil-soaked brown pelican in the aftermath of the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Maddie Madsen ’89, who recently launched the company Current Music, produced the country song “Drinking Time” for 5 Alarm Music. The song is featured in the movie The Watch, starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn.

The recent scoring credits for composer Gunnard Doboze ’00 include the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary short Saving Face; Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology; and the HBO documentary The Last Campaign, which was nominated for a 2010 Academy Award.

Pianist Bob Malone ’87 was part of a monthlong European tour with John Fogerty. Bruce Springsteen sat in with the band at their London concert, in front of 75,000 people. While in the United Kingdom, they also recorded a track for the new Fogerty CD at Abbey Road Studios. Bob Malone is also working on a new CD.

Composer Roger Bellon ’75 scored 186 Dollars to Freedom, which premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and won Best Picture at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. He also scored the short dance film The Perfection of Anna, for actress and director Elizabeth Gracen. It will be screened at Sundance Film Festival. The score features ethnic flutes performed by Peter Gordon ’78.

Steven Corn ‘84, CEO and cofounder of digital distributor BFM Digital, announced the release of the new album Look Out Now! by the Gaddabouts. This all-star group features renowned singer/songwriter and musician Edie Brickell, drumming great Steve Gadd, bassist Pino Palladino, and guitarist Andy Fairweather Low. Another recent release by BFM Jazz was trumpeter John Daversa’s album Artful Joy.

Saxophonist and composer Bob Reynolds ’00 scored two episodes of Leslie, a series for the WIGS YouTube channel starring Catherine O’Hara that was written and directed by best-selling author Mitch Albom. He also made a new record called Underscore featuring keyboardist Oli Rockberger ’02, guitarist John Shannon ’02, bassist Janek Gwizdala ’00, and John Mayer ’96 on guitar.

That’s all for now.