Joseph Trapanese
Encyclopedia
Joseph Trapanese is a composer
, arranger
, and producer
. He works in the production of music for for films, television, theater and concerts. He currently lives in Los Angeles
.
(Thomas Bangalter
and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
) on the soundtracks for the Walt Disney Pictures
film Tron: Legacy for two years (from pre-production to completion). His arrangements for the soundtrack have been described as "resolutely grand" and "stirring... ominous, hypnotic". The BBC
described the work as "a sophisticated integration of acoustic and electronic instrumentation... majestic… rich, solemn tones… saturnine orchestration and a muscular rhythm”.
Original composition projects include Sony Pictures Television
's original web series The Bannen Way
, the independent feature Mamitas (featured at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival
), and numerous scores for live action and animated films from UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. Trapanese contributed musical arrangements to Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
, What Happens in Vegas
and Traitor. Alongside composer Daniel Licht
, Joseph produced and orchestrated the scores for seasons 3 and 4 of Showtime's original series Dexter
, and continues to provide orchestrations for seasons 5 and 6.
's double-disc album "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" released with five tracks arranged by Trapanese. Joseph's work can be heard on "Intro", "Wait", "Soon, My Friend", "My Tears Are Becoming A Sea", and "Outro".
, Arthur Miller
's Incident at Vichy
, Vaclav Havel
's The Memorandum
, and Edward Bond
's The Sea
. His music for the production of Milan Stitt
's The Runner Stumbles
was described by the New York Times as "Precise and evocative... wistful, ringing melodies”.
Film and Television Award, and won the first annual Jerry Goldsmith
Award from UCLA in 2007. His concert music has been performed by Eighth Blackbird
, The United States Air Force Band
, and conducted by Alexander Mickelthwate
and Vince Mendoza
.
, and later an M.A.
in Music for Visual Media at UCLA, with support from the Henry Mancini
fund. His tutors include Giampaolo Bracali, Bruce Broughton
, Paul Chihara
, Roger Bourland
, Jack Smalley
, and Martin Bresnick
, and he also engaged in brief studies with Louis Andriessen
, Aaron Jay Kernis
, Julia Wolfe
, Mark Snow
, and Ira Newborn
. From 2008-2011, Joseph taught the Electronic Music and Composition curriculum at UCLA's Herb Alpert
School of Music.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
. He works in the production of music for for films, television, theater and concerts. He currently lives in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
Film and Television Music
Trapanese collaborated with Daft PunkDaft Punk
Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
(Thomas Bangalter
Thomas Bangalter
Thomas Bangalter is a French electronic musician best known as a member of the French house music duo Daft Punk. He has also recorded and released music as a member of the trio Stardust, the duo Together, and as a solo artist including compositions for the film Irréversible.Thomas Bangalter owns a...
and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo
Guillaume Emmanuel "Guy-Manuel" de Homem-Christo; is a founding member of the French house music duo Daft Punk, along with Thomas Bangalter. He has also produced several works from his record label Crydamoure with label co-owner Éric Chedeville. He and Chedeville formed the musical duo Le Knight...
) on the soundtracks for the Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
film Tron: Legacy for two years (from pre-production to completion). His arrangements for the soundtrack have been described as "resolutely grand" and "stirring... ominous, hypnotic". The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
described the work as "a sophisticated integration of acoustic and electronic instrumentation... majestic… rich, solemn tones… saturnine orchestration and a muscular rhythm”.
Original composition projects include Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
's original web series The Bannen Way
The Bannen Way
The Bannen Way is an American crime drama web series starring Mark Gantt as Neal Bannen, a third generation criminal who wants to get out of the con man lifestyle he's been living. The show officially premiered on Sony Pictures Entertainment owned Crackle on January 6, 2010, but the first three...
, the independent feature Mamitas (featured at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival
Los Angeles Film Festival
The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...
), and numerous scores for live action and animated films from UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. Trapanese contributed musical arrangements to Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is a 2010 fantasy-adventure film directed by Chris Columbus. The film is loosely based on The Lightning Thief, the first novel in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series by Rick Riordan...
, What Happens in Vegas
What Happens in Vegas
What Happens in Vegas is a 2008 American romantic comedy film from 20th Century Fox starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. The title is based on the marketing catchphrase, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."-Plot:...
and Traitor. Alongside composer Daniel Licht
Daniel Licht
Daniel Licht is an American film composer and musician, best known for composing the score for Showtime TV drama series, Dexter.-Biography:...
, Joseph produced and orchestrated the scores for seasons 3 and 4 of Showtime's original series Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...
, and continues to provide orchestrations for seasons 5 and 6.
Music Collaboration with Artists
On Oct 18, 2011 M83M83
M83 or M-83 may refer to:* Messier 83, a spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra* M83 , an electronic or shoegazing music group named after the galaxy** M83 , the debut album of the M83 music group...
's double-disc album "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" released with five tracks arranged by Trapanese. Joseph's work can be heard on "Intro", "Wait", "Soon, My Friend", "My Tears Are Becoming A Sea", and "Outro".
Music for Live Theater
The music Trapanese has produced for theater is performed primarily in New York City, most notably in productions by The Actors Company Theatre. Recent productions that he has provided music for include T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail PartyThe Cocktail Party
The Cocktail Party is a play by T. S. Eliot. Elements of the play are based on Alcestis, by the Ancient Greek playwright Euripides. The play was the most popular of Eliot's seven plays in his lifetime, although his 1935 play, Murder in the Cathedral, is better remembered today.The Cocktail Party...
, Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's Incident at Vichy
Incident At Vichy
Incident at Vichy is a 1964 play by American dramatist Arthur Miller focusing upon the subjects of human nature, guilt, fear, and complicity using Vichy France for the setting. Miller, a Jew himself, wrote the one act play about a group of detainees waiting for inspection by German officers during...
, Vaclav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
's The Memorandum
The Memorandum
-Plot:Josef Gross, a director of an unnamed organization, receives a memorandum written in Ptydepe, a constructed language, about an audit. He finds out that Ptydepe was created to get rid of similarities between words, such as fox and box, and emotional connexions. He tries to get someone to...
, and Edward Bond
Edward Bond
Edward Bond is an English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist and screenwriter. He is the author of some fifty plays, among them Saved , the production of which was instrumental in the abolition of theatre censorship in the UK...
's The Sea
The Sea
-Films:*La Mer , an 1895 French short, black-and-white, silent documentary film directed by Louis Lumière*The Sea , a 1933 Polish short, documentary film directed by Wanda Jakubowska...
. His music for the production of Milan Stitt
Milan Stitt
Milan Stitt was an American playwright and educator.Milan Stitt was born in Detroit, Michigan; he graduated from Cooley High School in 1959. Stitt then studied at Albion College to become a priest before receiving his BA from the University of Michigan and MFA from the Yale School of Drama...
's The Runner Stumbles
The Runner Stumbles
The Runner Stumbles is a 1979 film directed and produced by Stanley Kramer, based on the Broadway play by Milan Stitt. The film stars Dick Van Dyke, Kathleen Quinlan, Maureen Stapleton, Tammy Grimes, Beau Bridges and Ray Bolger.-Plot:...
was described by the New York Times as "Precise and evocative... wistful, ringing melodies”.
Awards and Honors
In 2009, Joseph won ASCAP's Harold ArlenHarold Arlen
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
Film and Television Award, and won the first annual Jerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
Award from UCLA in 2007. His concert music has been performed by Eighth Blackbird
Eighth blackbird
eighth blackbird is a Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet based in Chicago. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird...
, The United States Air Force Band
The United States Air Force Band
'The Singing Sergeants' is the official chorus of the United States Air Force. It was formed in 1945 from members of The United States Air Force Concert Band, but is now composed entirely of professional vocalists who have been appointed by audition. The Singing Sergeants have appeared before every...
, and conducted by Alexander Mickelthwate
Alexander Mickelthwate
Alexander Mickelthwate is a German-born conductor. He is one of three sons in his family, and studied piano and cello as a youth. He studied piano performance and conducting in Karlsruhe, Germany, and participated in international conducting courses in Austria and France...
and Vince Mendoza
Vince Mendoza
Vince Mendoza is a music arranger and composer.Mendoza was born in Connecticut and studied guitar as a child, influenced by classical music, soul and jazz. He then took up the trumpet, which he continued to play throughout his time at Ohio State University, where he played in the Jazz Ensemble and...
.
Education
Trapanese completed his bachelor's degree in Composition at the Manhattan School of MusicManhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
, and later an M.A.
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts is a high academic degree offered at many universities in Europe and the United States.A Master of Arts, Magister Artium, or Magister in Artibus may also refer to:...
in Music for Visual Media at UCLA, with support from the Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
fund. His tutors include Giampaolo Bracali, Bruce Broughton
Bruce Broughton
Bruce Broughton is a film, video game, and television soundtrack composer who has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career, including American music classics such as "Homeward Bound," "Silverado", "Tombstone," and wonderfully lyric music for "Miracle on 34th...
, Paul Chihara
Paul Chihara
Paul Seiko Chihara is an American composer.Chihara was born in Seattle, Washington in 1938. A Japanese American, he spent several years of his childhood with his family in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho....
, Roger Bourland
Roger Bourland
Roger Bourland is an American composer, publisher, blogger, and Chair of the UCLA Department of Music.- Biography :Born in Evanston, Illinois, Bourland received a Bachelor of Music in Music Theory and Composition from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, studying with Leslie Thimmig and Randall...
, Jack Smalley
Jack Smalley
Jack Smalley is an American composer, orchestrator, and teacher of film and television scoring.After working for years as a jazz bassist, Smalley began to get jobs writing music for television, notable Charlie's Angels and Murder, She Wrote....
, and Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music.-Education and early career:Bresnick was born and raised in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and Art. He was educated at the University of Hartford ,...
, and he also engaged in brief studies with Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...
, Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis is an American composer and professor at the Yale School of Music.-Biography:Aaron Jay Kernis is Jewish, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University .,Notable works include the...
, Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe is an American composer. She was born in Philadelphia, holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Princeton and Yale, and currently works in New York. Wolfe's music is rhythmically vigorous and often clangorously dissonant...
, Mark Snow
Mark Snow
Mark Snow is an American composer for film and television.Born in New York, he grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from the High School of Music and Art and, afterwards, the Juilliard School of Music...
, and Ira Newborn
Ira Newborn
Ira Newborn is an American musician and composer, best known for his work composing motion picture soundtracks....
. From 2008-2011, Joseph taught the Electronic Music and Composition curriculum at UCLA's Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert
Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
School of Music.