Recording Sessions

At the end of February I had a recording session for my score to the play From Up Here. The orchestration was for 7 strings (2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and a bass) and piano. 

It was so much fun. I personally love working with musicians and hearing my music performed live by real instruments. I was very organized with getting all the music printed, and set up the classroom in the Lerner Center at the University of Pennsylvania so that it worked for a recording session. There was also a terrific piano in the room. 

Once the musicians arrived, we tuned up and started going through the score in chronological order. I first explained to them the plot and my reasoning behind the score. The recording session went very well, we were done recording the 4 minute score in about an hour and a half.

I took about 3 takes per cue so that it gave Esther Cohen, the director of the play, many tracks to choose from for the final 7 cues. 

After this wonderful experience, I have really noticed my love for writing incidental music for theater. I have now written music for four plays and it is a lot of fun. I would definitely consider scoring more plays as well as films in the future. Both jobs go hand in hand in my view.