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Release Date: August 28, 2020
Catalog #: NV6297
Format: Digital & Physical

Winner of Best Immersive Audio Album
in 63rd GRAMMY Awards

Soundtrack of the American Soldier

The United States Army Field Band And Soldiers' Chorus  |  Col. Jim R. Keene conductor

Navona Records presents SOUNDTRACK OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER, an album of contemporary works for wind band performed by The United States Army Field Band. Led by Colonel Jim R Keene, the Army Field Band is the U.S. Army’s premier touring musical organization. In SOUNDTRACK OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER, the Army Field Band presents music of classic American films and video games, and in doing so celebrates the stories they portray and the men and women who inspired them. Monitored and mixed in IMMERSIVE DOLBY ATMOS® (5.1.4), SURROUND (5.1), and STEREO, the album immerses the listener in a multi-dimensional soundscape that creates a deeply meaningful connection to the music and the stories it portrays.

Teaming up with some of the most-heralded composers in Hollywood—including Laura Karpman, Joshua Moshier, and Jeff Beal—the Army Field Band performs fresh arrangements of music from the 1941 Gary Cooper classic Sergeant York, the legendary Electronic Arts video game Medal of Honor, and everything in between. SOUNDTRACK OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER begins with Brass Ceiling: The Journey of General Ann Dunwoody, honoring the life and work of Four Star General Ann Dunwoody who was the first woman to achieve the rank of four star general. The music is meticulously crafted with latent symbolism, such as a fanfare that portrays the movement of “supply lines” like those Dunwoody oversaw when she was in charge of the Army’s logistics.

Later we hear an arrangement of the 1917 classic, “Over There,” which became a hugely-popular anthem during both world wars; this time, it is reimagined by the Army Field Band as only they can. March from 1941, written by film-scoring legend John Williams, captures this Spielberg film’s lighthearted humor and underlying emotional gravitas. The album concludes with an unexpected treat and homage to the Skywalker Ranch, home of Skywalker Sound where the album was recorded: “The Jedi Steps and Finale” From Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

SOUNDTRACK OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER is both a moving tribute to military heroes and a fresh look at stories and sounds of struggle and ultimate triumph. SOUNDTRACK OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER is a unique and deeply memorable recording that is not to be missed.

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"This is an engaging and beautifully performed album which has some real gems on it."

Darren Rea

Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Brass Ceiling (The Journey of General Ann Dunwoody) Laura Karpman The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 6:18
02 Overture (From "Sergeant York") [Arr. A. Hernandez ] Max Steiner The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 6:03
03 Medal of Honor Suite (Arr. S. Simonec) Michael Giacchino The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 7:43
04 Over There (Arr. A. Hernandez) George M. Cohan The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor; Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Erbe, Sgt. 1st Class Elizabeth Garcia - soloists 2:35
05 A Portrait of Honor Joshua Moshier The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 5:08
06 American Sniper Suite Joseph Debeasi The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 6:42
07 The March from "1941" (Arr. P. Lavender) John Williams The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 4:11
08 The Long Road Home Suite Jeff Beal The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 8:41
09 The Great WWII Medley (Arr. T. Simonec) Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 4:17
10 God Bless America (Arr. P. Lavender) Irving Berlin The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 4:02
11 The Star-Spangled Banner (Arr. A. Hernandez) Francis Scott Key The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 1:57
12 Army Strong (Arr. B. Dechter) Mark Isham The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 2:40
13 The Jedi Steps and Finale (From "Star Wars: The Force Awakens") [Arr. P. Lavender] John Williams The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus | Col. Jim R. Keene, conductor 9:04

Recorded October 29 – November 2, 2018 at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm Ltd. company, Marin County, California

The microphones used included Neumann, Sennheiser, AEA, Royer and AKG using Neve, Grace and Millennia Media preamps.

The recording was monitored and mixed in IMMERSIVE DOLBY ATMOS® (5.1.4), SURROUND SOUND (5.1), and STEREO over 19 days (October 21-29, 2019; February 3-9, 2020; and February 20, 21 & 24 (Stereo)) using Bowers and Wilkins 802 Nautilus speakers for L, C, R, LS and RS powered by Chord amplifiers, and a B&W active AWS 4000 for the LFE. Heights were Neumann KH 310 active speakers.

Recorded and mixed to Pro Tools at 24/96.

Music Conductor & Director Col. Jim R. Keene
Recording Producer Dan Merceruio
Recording Engineer Leslie Ann Jones
Assistant Engineer Dann Thompson, Judy Kirschner, Robert Gatley
Floor Assistants Sean Martin, Jason Butler
Editing Engineer Dan Merceruio
Mixing Engineer Leslie Ann Jones
Mastering Engineer Michael Romanowski (Coast Mastering)
Piano Technician Larry Lobel
Executive Producer Lt. Col. Domingos Robinson
Project Manager Master Sgt. Adrian Hernandez
Liner Notes Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Johnson

CONCERT BAND PERSONNEL

FLUTE
Sgt. 1st Class Pamela Daniels (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Troy Polantonio (all tracks)
Ms. Nichole Frankel (all tracks)

FLUTE/PICCOLO
Staff Sgt. Jennifer Zhou (all tracks)

OBOE/ENGLISH HORN
Sgt. 1st Class Erika Grimm (1-2, 4, 6-8, 10-13)
Sgt. 1st Class Sarah Schram-Borg (1-3, 5-6, 8-13)
Staff Sgt. Amy Houck (2-4, 6-7, 9-13)

E-FLAT CLARINET
Sgt. 1st Class Brian Eldridge (all tracks)

CLARINET
Sgt. Maj. Reis McCullough (all tracks)
Master Sgt. Jennifer Everhart (all tracks)
Master Sgt. Michael Sears (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Lauren Angert (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class John Blair (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Charlie Brochovich (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Marlena Dillenbeck (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Mikey Arbulu (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Dane Clark (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Erik Franklin (all tracks)

BASS CLARINET
Master Sgt. Chad Martin (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Walko (all tracks)

BASSOON
1st Sgt. Tracie Whitelaw (1, 3, 10-13)
Sgt. 1st Class Thaddeus M. Crutcher, Jr. (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Sergio Acosta (all tracks)

SAXOPHONE
Master Sgt. Brian Sacawa (all tracks)
Master Sgt. Christopher Blossom (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Goff (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class David Parks (all tracks)

TRUMPET
Master Sgt. Ward Yager (2-5, 7-13)
Master Sgt. Jesse Tubb (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Phillip Johnson (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Ryan Brewer (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Tiffany Hoffer (all tracks)
Sgt. Maj. (ret.) Gil Hoffer (all tracks)

FRENCH HORN
Sgt. Maj. Robert Cherry (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Selena Maytum (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class J.G. Miller (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Kaci Cummings (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Jennifer Kempe (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Lori Roy (all tracks)

TROMBONE
Master Sgt. Aaron Kadrmas (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Carmen Russo (all tracks)
Sgt. 1st Class Todd Sturniolo (all tracks)

BASS TROMBONE
Master Sgt. Wesley Ballenger III (all tracks)

EUPHONIUM
Master Sgt. Christoper Sarangoulis (all tracks)
Master Sgt. Lauren Curran (all tracks)

TUBA
Master Sgt. Matthew Nelson (1-9, 11-13)
Sgt. 1st Class Scott Devereaux (all tracks)
Staff Sgt. Chase Garner (1, 3, 5-13)

DOUBLE BASS
Sgt. 1st Class Joel Ciaccio (all tracks)

HARP
Staff Sgt. Grace Bauson (1-3, 5-6, 8-13)

PIANO/CELESTE
Staff Sgt. Darren Lael (1-2, 4-6, 8-13)

TIMPANI
Sgt. 1st Class Robert Marino (all tracks)

PERCUSSION
Sgt. Maj. William Elliott (1-9, 11-13)
Master Sgt. Brian Spurgeon (1-9, 11-13)
Staff Sgt. Andrew Emerich (1-9, 11-13)
Staff Sgt. Derek Stults (1-9, 11-13)
Sgt. Maj. (ret.) Tom Enokian (1, 3-13)
Sgt. Maj. Scott Vincent (3, 6-8, 12-13)

CHORUS PERSONNEL

SOPRANO
Master Sgt. Rose Ryon (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Charis Strange (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Teresa Alzadon (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Rachel Rose Farber (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Michaela Shelton (4, 6, 10-12)

ALTO
Sgt. Maj. Erica Russo (4, 6, 10-12)
Master Sgt. Teresa Harris (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Elizabeth Garcia (4, 6, 10-12)
Staff Sgt. Heidi Ackerman (4, 6, 10-12)
Staff Sgt. Leslie Ostransky (4, 6, 10-12)

TENOR
Sgt. Maj. Robert McIver, Jr. (4, 6, 10-12)
Master Sgt. Mario A. Garcia, Jr. (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Erbe (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Hilgert (4, 6, 10-12)
Staff Sgt. Timothy Coombs (4, 6, 10-12)

BASS
Master Sgt. Mark Huseth (4, 6, 10-12)
Sgt. 1st Class Samuel Chung (4, 6, 10-12)
Staff Sgt. Kennan McCarter (4, 6, 10-12)
Staff Sgt. Ian Bowling (4, 6, 10-12)
Staff Sgt. William Tvrdik (4, 6, 10-12)

Executive Producer Bob Lord
Associate Producer Levi Brown

Management Jeff LeRoy, Janet Giovanniello, Tim Finley

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil

Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Aidan Curran, Sara Warner

Artist Information

The United States Army Field Band

Ensemble

The United States Army Field Band of Washington DC is the U.S. Army’s premier touring musical organization, traveling throughout the country and internationally to connect the American people to their Army and to represent the nation around the world. Members of the Army Field Band can be seen each year performing for the nationally televised “A Capitol Fourth,” the National Memorial Day Concert, and every four years leading the Army Element of the Presidential Inaugural Parade.

Colonel Jim R. Keene

Music Director and Conductor

Colonel Jim Keene became the Commander of The United States Army Field Band in January 2015. Prior to this assignment, he served as Commander of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York; Commandant of the Army School of Music at Norfolk, Virginia; and at The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, DC, the U.S. Army Europe Band and Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Army Ground Forces Band in Atlanta, Georgia.

COL Keene has led numerous performances for international military and civilian leaders, dignitaries, and heads of state. During his time as Commander of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, he led performances for the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, co-directed the music for A&E’s and the National Park Service’s “A New Birth of Freedom” special for the 150th commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg, and directed a one-hour music special holiday production by the West Point Band aired on Fox News, “A West Point Holiday.” COL Keene led The U.S. Army Chorus in performances at the interments of former Presidents Ronald Reagan in Simi Valley, California, and Gerald R. Ford in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He has performed for seven U.S. presidents, at the 1996 Summer Olympic and Para-Olympic Games in Atlanta, the dedication of the National WWII Memorial, the one-year anniversary of 9/11 at the Pentagon, the “Kennedy Center Honors,” and the Military District of Washington’s production, “Spirit of America.” He has worked with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and Chorus and the National Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. He holds a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of New Mexico.

Dan Merceruio

Producer and Editing Engineer

Dan Merceruio is a four-time GRAMMY nominee (Best Immersive Audio Album, 2018; Producer of the Year, Classical, 2015; Best Surround Sound Album, 2013; Producer of the Year, Classical, 2012), and winner of a Latin GRAMMY (Best Classical Album, 2012).

Dan has produced and edited over 150 albums and projects for commercial release and television broadcast, with widely varied instrumentation configurations ranging from solo piano, lute duet, string quartet and wind quintet to a cappella vocal ensemble, chamber orchestra, symphonic and woodwind band as well as full symphonic orchestra with added chorus. He has produced and collaborated with such renowned artists and composers as the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), International Contemporary Ensemble (I.C.E.), Ann Thorvaldsdottir, The United States Army Field Band, West Point Symphonic Wind Band, Nordic Affect, Skylark Vocal Ensemble, Lorelei Ensemble, Bach Sinfonia, Spektral Quartet, Bruce Levingston, Jenny Lin, Eleonor Bindman, Jory Vinikour, Christopher O’Riley, Pablo Zeigler, Ying Quartet, Jasper Quartet, Ronn McFarlane, Ensemble Galilei, Lara Downes, Peter Gregson, Stewart Goodyear, Janet Sung and many others. Dan produced the pre-recorded music for Macy’s July Fourth Live Fireworks Show television broadcast in collaboration with West Point Symphonic Band(s) in 2017 and 2018.

Dan graduated from Shenandoah University in 2006 with a bachelors in Commercial Music with an instrumental emphasis on Classical vocal performance, and a classical/jazz piano minor. He was presented an “Alumni of Excellence” award from Shenandoah in April 2017 for recognition of his significant contributions to the audio and production industry.

Dan currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Washington D.C. Chapter of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYs) and is co-chair of the D.C. Chapter Producers and Engineers Committee.

Leslie Ann Jones

Recording and Mixing Engineer

A recording and mixing engineer and record producer for over 30 years, Leslie has held staff positions at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the Automatt Recording Studios in San Francisco, Capitol Studios in Hollywood, and now Skywalker Sound where she continues her career in recording and mixing music for records, films, video games, and television, and producing records primarily in the Classical genre.

She is a past Chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees and is the recipient of five GRAMMY Awards, including three for Best Engineered Album-Classical. She is a current Recording Academy Trustee from the San Francisco Chapter and serves on the Advisory Boards of Institute for Musical Arts, G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild), and is an Artistic Advisor to the Technology and Applied Composition degree program at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Leslie is an AES Heyser Lecturer and was inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame in 2019.

Leslie also chaired the committee that wrote “Recommendations for High Resolution Music Production,” published by the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy.

Laura Karpman

Composer

With a feverish imagination, impeccable musicianship, complexity, versatility, unbridled joy, and fearlessness, Laura Karpman makes music, which is, in the words of George Manahan, music director of the American Composer’s Orchestra, "a rare combination of heart and groin." With her rigorous musical approach, coupled with conceptual and progressive uses of technology and recording, Laura is a true 21st century American composer.

Four-time Emmy winning composer and composer of the GRAMMY-winning album ASK YOUR MAMA, Laura Karpman maintains a vibrant career in film, television, videogame and concert music. Her distinguished credits include the series UNDERGROUND, in collaboration with Raphael Saadiq and John Legend, L.A.’s FINEST, The Sundance / Fox Searchlight film STEP, Eleanor Coppola’s PARIS CAN WAIT starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin, Kasi Lemmons’ BLACK NATIVITY starring Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker, Steven Spielberg’s miniseries TAKEN, the Showtime series ODYSSEY 5, and MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION for which she received Emmy nominations. She contributed to Sophia Coppola’s 2017 THE BEGUILED. Commissioned by Carnegie Hall, she collaborated with soprano Jessye Norman and The Roots on ASK YOUR MAMA, a multimedia opera on a text by Langston Hughes, which received its sold out premiere at Carnegie Hall in March 2009, and its West Coast premiere at The Hollywood Bowl and was revived at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Laura was commissioned by the Glimmerglass Festival for Wilde Tales, directed by Francesca Zambello, developed an opera BALLS, a collaboration with NY Times columnist Gail Collins, with Yuval Sharon’s The Industry, and received a 2019 commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic for ALL AMERICAN. Laura has received two GANG awards and an additional nomination for her videogame music which has been performed by orchestras internationally, as well as an Annie Feature nomination. She serves as an advisor for the Sundance Film Scoring Labs and is on the faculty of the USC Film Scoring Program. Laura is the founding President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers and is proud to serve as a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

laurakarpman.com

Max Steiner

Composer

Max Steiner, in full Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner, (born May 10, 1888, Vienna, Austria—died Dec. 28, 1971, Hollywood, Calif., U.S.), Austrian-born U.S. composer and conductor. A prodigy, he wrote an operetta at age 14 that ran in Vienna for a year.

He immigrated to the U.S. in 1914 and worked in New York City as a theatre conductor and arranger, and then he moved to Hollywood in 1929. He became one of the first and finest (if not subtlest) movie composers, establishing many techniques that became standard, with his scores for King Kong (1933), The Informer (1935, Academy Award), Gone with the Wind (1939), Now, Voyager (1942, Academy Award), Since You Went Away (1944, Academy Award), The Big Sleep (1946), The Fountainhead (1949), and many others. [BRITANNICA SOURCE]

Michael Giacchino

Composer

Composer Michael Giacchino has credits that feature some of the most popular and acclaimed film projects in recent history, including The Incredibles, War for the Planet of the Apes, Ratatouille, Star Trek, Jurassic World, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Coco. Giacchino’s 2009 score for the Pixar hit Up earned him an Oscar®, a Golden Globe®, the BAFTA, the Broadcast Film Critics’ Choice Award and two GRAMMY® Awards.

Giacchino studied filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. After college, he landed a marketing job at Disney and began studies in music composition, first at Juilliard, and then at UCLA. He moved from marketing to producing in the newly formed Disney Interactive Division where he had the opportunity to write music for video games. After moving to DreamWorks Interactive, he was asked to score the temp track for the video game adaptation of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Subsequently, Steven Spielberg hired him as the composer and it became the first PlayStation game to have a live orchestral score, recorded with members of the Seattle Symphony. Giacchino went on to score numerous video games including Spielberg’s Medal of Honor series. Giacchino’s work in video games sparked the interest of J.J. Abrams, and thus began their long-standing relationship that would lead to scores for the hit television series Alias and Lost, and the feature films Mission Impossible III, Star Trek, Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness. Additional projects include collaborations with Disney Imagineering on music for Space Mountain, Star Tours (with John Williams), the Ratatouille ride in Disneyland Paris, and the Incredicoaster on Pixar Pier at California Adventure. Giacchino was the musical director of the 81st Annual Academy Awards®. His music can be heard in concert halls internationally with all three Star Trek films, Ratatouille, Jurassic World, Up and Coco being performed live-to-picture with a full orchestra. In June 2018, Giacchino premiered his first work for symphony orchestra, Voyage. Commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the piece celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of NASA. Giacchino’s most recent projects include Spider-Man: Far From Home and as well as Jojo Rabbit, a film by Taika Waititi. Giacchino serves as the Governor of the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and sits on the advisory board of Education Through Music Los Angeles.

michaelgiacchino.com

George M. Cohan

Composer

George M. Cohan, in full George Michael Cohan, (born July 3, 1878, Providence, R.I., U.S.—died Nov. 5, 1942, New York, N.Y.), American actor, popular songwriter, playwright, and producer especially of musical comedies, who became famous as the “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

At an early age he performed with his parents and sister, subsequently taking comedy roles in vaudeville and on the legitimate stage. By 1893 he was writing vaudeville skits and popular songs. His first full-length play opened in New York in 1901. A description of his early experiments and the stage career of the “Four Cohans” is in his autobiography, Twenty Years on Broadway and the Years It Took to Get There (1925). Among Cohan’s productions were The Governor’s Son (1901), Forty-five Minutes from Broadway (1906), The Talk of New York (1907), Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1910), Broadway Jones (1912), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913), The Tavern (1921), The Song and Dance Man (1923), and American Born (1925). Among his best-known appearances were those in Ah, Wilderness! (1933) and I’d Rather Be Right (1937). He composed numerous songs, including “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Mary’s a Grand Old Name,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy,” and the famous “Over There” of World War I, for which Congress authorized him a special medal in 1940. His career was the subject of a motion picture, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and a Broadway musical, George M! (1968). [BRITANNICA SOURCE]

Joseph S. Debeasi

Composer

Composer, conductor Joseph S DeBeasi, has been praised for his blend of creative electronic sounds and traditional instrumentation. His use of melody and harmonic subtext embody the heart of his musical storytelling.

His American Sniper Suite, an arrangement of his score for the movie, was recently featured on the concert Generations of Honor, The Soundtrack of the Amercian Soldier, where he served as guest conductor with the US Army Field Concert Band and Choir. The suite was recorded by the concert band at Skywalker Sound as part of a compilation for their CD. In March and November of 2018, Joseph was the featured composer and guest conductor for Sinfonia: Connecting The Arts & Community, honoring past and present military members. Both concerts presented world premieres of his work, including The American Sniper Suite and two symphonic works commissioned by Southeastern University: One More Minute and A Thousand Faces. His film scores include the original score for Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-nominated, American Sniper, the award-winning feature documentary, Kidnapped for Christ, the feature comedy, Eleven Eleven, and Alpha, directed by Albert Hughes, for which he was co-composer. Alpha’s score was listed in the top ten best scores for 2018 by Film Music Magazine. Joseph is also known for his work as a music editor on feature films, including Wind River, The Revenant, Sicario, Prisoners, and Book of Eli. Joseph received a BMI Film Music Award for his score on American Sniper. His score for Judges won Best Soundtrack at the Miami International Sci-fi Film Festival.

www.imdb.com/name/nm0213358/

Joshua Moshier

Composer

As a composer for films and television, Joshua Moshier has established himself as a trusted collaborator and distinctive musical voice. Joshua's television work includes scoring the FX series Baskets, starring Zach Galifianakis; NBC's Shrink, created by Tim Baltz & Ted Tremper and streaming on Hulu; Sky One’s Sick of It from Richard Yee & Karl Pilkington, the Emmy-nominated Netflix series Special from Jim Parsons’ That’s Wonderful Productions, and the main title music for the Emmy-nominated IFC series Documentary Now! starring Fred Armisen and Bill Hader.

On the feature film side, Joshua scored the Netflix film Happy Anniversary from writer/director Jared Stern, Good Enough from writer/director AnnaRose King, and Beneath Us from writer/director Max Pachman. Recent assignments include the upcoming Adult Swim series Three Busy Debras from director Anna Dokoza and Amy Poehler's Paper Kite Productions, and producing and arranging the main theme for HBO’s Pod Save America specials. In animation, Joshua’s work includes the upcoming HBO Max series Looney Tunes Cartoons; the DreamWorks series Dragons: Rescue Riders, and the viral animated hit Sidewalk, directed by Celia Bullwinkel. Joshua created the interactive ambisonic music for Google's Earth VR (available for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive), which won a Cannes Lion for innovation and was recognized by Ars Technica as "VR's killer app." Born in Baton Rouge, LA and raised in St. Charles, IL, Joshua studied music at Northwestern University. Throughout and after college, he delved deeply into the Chicago music scene, performing as a pianist with Marquis Hill, Chris Madsen, Milton Suggs, John Moulder and many others. In his own group co-led with Mike Lebrun, he released Joy Not Jaded and The Local Colorists, as well as his Chamber Music America commissioned work Touch and Go: The Studs Terkel Project.

joshuamoshier.com

John Williams

Composer

In a career spanning more than five decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage. He has served as music director and laureate conductor of one of the country’s treasured musical institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and he maintains thriving artistic relationships with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Mr. Williams has received a variety of prestigious awards, including the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Olympic Order, and numerous Academy Awards, GRAMMY Awards, Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards.  He remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. Mr. Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than one hundred films. His 45-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler’s List, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Munich, Hook, Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Empire of the Sun, The Adventures of TinTin, War Horse, The BFG and Lincoln.  Their latest collaboration, The Post, was released in December of 2017.  Mr. Williams composed the scores for all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Superman, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, Home Alone, Nixon, The Patriot, Angela’s Ashes, Seven Years in Tibet, The Witches of Eastwick, Rosewood, Sleepers, Sabrina, Presumed Innocent, The Cowboys, The Reivers and Goodbye, Mr. Chips among many others. He has worked with many legendary directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler and Robert Altman.  In 1971, he adapted the score for the film version of Fiddler on the Roof, for which he composed original violin cadenzas for renowned virtuoso Isaac Stern. He has appeared on recordings as pianist and conductor with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Jessye Norman, and others.  Mr. Williams has received five Academy Awards and fifty-two Oscar nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most nominated person in the history of the Oscars. His most recent nomination was for the film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.  He also has received seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), twenty-five GRAMMYs, four Golden Globes, five Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records. Born and raised in New York, Mr. Williams moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948, where he studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After service in the Air Force, he returned to New York to attend the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Madame Rosina Lhevinne. While in New York, he also worked as a jazz pianist in nightclubs. He returned to Los Angeles and began his career in the film industry, working with a number of accomplished composers including Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for more than 200 television films for the groundbreaking, early anthology series Alcoa Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Chrysler Theatre and Playhouse 90. His more recent contributions to television music include the well-known theme for NBC Nightly News (“The Mission”), the theme for what has become network television’s longest-running series, NBC’s Meet the Press, and a new theme for the prestigious PBS arts showcase Great Performances.

johnwilliams.org

Jeff Beal

Composer

Jeff Beal is an American composer of music for film, media, and the concert hall.  With musical beginnings as a jazz trumpeter and recording artist, his works are infused with an understanding of rhythm and spontaneity. Steven Schneider for the New York Times wrote of "the richness of Beal's musical thinking...his compositions often capture the liveliness and unpredictability of the best improvisation.”

Beal’s seven solo CDs, including Three Graces, Contemplations (Triloka) Red Shift (Koch Jazz), and Liberation (Island Records) established him as a respected recording artist and composer. Beal’s eclectic music has been singled out with critical acclaim and recognition.  His score and theme for Netflix drama, House of Cards, has received five prime time Emmy Award nominations & two statues.  Regarding his compelling score for the documentary, Blackfish, the late film critic Roger Ebert wrote of Beal’s ability to “invoke many genres; thriller, mystery, melodrama.”  Another lauded documentary, The Queen of Versailles, opened the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote that, “scored wittily by composer Jeff Beal, the film glides along on Beal's waltz theme, a theme full of elegance and class and a discordant hint of storm clouds.” Scoring Ed Harris’ beautifully balletic painting scenes in Pollock was an exceptional opportunity for Beal.  Film critic for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote "To watch Lisa Rinzler's expressive shots of Harris as Pollock create his paintings, especially the famously acrobatic drip canvases, to Jeff Beal's Aaron Copland-influenced music is little short of thrilling." He has received nineteen prime time Emmy nominations for his music, and has won five statues.  Other scores of note include his dramatic music for HBO’s acclaimed series Carnivale and Rome, as well as his comedic score and theme for the detective series, Monk.  Beal composes, orchestrates, conducts, records and mixes his own scores, which gives his music a very personal, distinctive touch. Beal’s commissioned works have been performed by many leading orchestras and conductors, including the St. Louis (Marin Alsop), Rochester, Pacific (Carl St. Clair), Frankfurt, Munich, and Detroit (Neeme Jaarvi) symphony orchestras.  Kent Nagano commissioned and premiered two works, Alternate Route for trumpet and orchestra with Beal as soloist, and Interchange for string quartet and orchestra. Other commissions include the ballet Oasis for Smuin Ballet, Light Falls for the World Science Festival, The Metropole Orchestra, Ying String Quartet,  Debussy Trio, Henry Mancini Institute, Chamber Music Festival of Lexington & GRAMMY winning guitarist Jason Vieaux.  His score for Philip Haas' art installation Butchers, Dragons, Gods & Skeletons, was showcased at the Kimball Art Museum and the 2011 Venice Biennale. His first choral commission, entitled The Salvage Men, is written for the Los Angeles Master Chorale.  Current commissions include new works for The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, a concerto for flutist Sharon Bezaly, song cycles for Cantus, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Beal's grandmother Irene was a pianist who performed on the radio and as accompanist for silent movies.  She was an avid jazz fan, and gave him Miles Davis’/Gil Evans' Sketches of Spain album when he was beginning his trumpet studies.  Beal graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where he was commencement speaker and honored alumnus in 2011.  He now mentors and encourages young composers as a participant in the Sundance Film Composer seminars and as a guest lecturer at conservatories.   Beal met his wife, soprano Joan Beal at Eastman School of Music where the couple recently donated $2 million to the creation of The Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media.

jeffbeal.com

Jerry Goldsmith

Composer

Jerry Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor. He was an instrumental personality in Hollywood; his film scores helped him achieve exceptional popularity and success. Jerry Goldsmith was born on February 10, 1929 in Los Angeles, California. At the age of six, he started experimenting with the piano and at age thirteen, he would start taking lessons with the renowned Polish Pianist Jakob Gimpel.

In 1945, Goldsmith started taking lessons with the Italian Composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who was famous for having trained musical legends, including John Williams and André Previn. Goldsmith furthered his musical education at the University of Southern California. There he met his idol, Miklos Rosa, who wrote the soundtrack to the film “Spellbound”. Goldsmith later studied at the Los Angeles City College, where he also worked as an assistant conductor. Goldsmith’s professional career started off when he was appointed as a clerk typist for CBS Network’s Music Director, Lud Gluskin. Soon, Goldsmith was writing scores for radio shows, including “CBS Radio Workshop”, “Romance”, and “Frontier Gentleman”. Goldsmith’s talents was noticed by CBS’s television department, and soon he was called upon to write scores for television series, including the highly popular “Twilight Zone”, “Playhouse 90” and “Climax!” After Goldsmith composed the score for NBC’s “Thriller”, American Composer Alfred Newman recommended Goldsmith to Universal Studios to write the score for the classic western film, “Lonely Are the Brave”. The score was so successful that Goldsmith was immediately commissioned to write the score for another Universal Studios film, “Freud: The Secret Passion”. His score for “Freud” was his first work to receive an Academy Award Nomination. Goldsmith then embarked on a collaborative project with director Franklin Schaffner to write the score for “The Stripper”. Goldsmith ended up writing the scores for most of Schaffner’s future films, including the highly famous “Planet of the Apes”, “Papillion”, “The Boys are from Brazil” and “Patton”. Goldsmith was also credited for his fantastic scores for war-movies. His 1965 score for “In Harm’s Way” and his 1967 score for the legendary naval war movie “The Sand Pebbles” are considered all time classics (“The Sand Pebbles” also awarded Goldsmith an Academy Award Nomination). He also wrote the score to the World War I themed movie “The Blue Max”. His score for the “Planet of the Apes” is also considered the first score ever to be composed in the adventurous avant-garde style, with the usage of looping drums and steel mixing bowls. He is also known for composing and recording the score for “Chinatown” in only ten days after the original composer’s (Phillip Lambro) score was rejected. Perhaps Goldsmith’s greatest and most recognized film score was his composition for the science fiction epic “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”. He went on to compose plenty of scores for the Star Trek franchise, including “Star Trek: Nemesis” and the immensely popular television series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Goldsmith’s last score was completed in 2003, and it was for “Looney Tunes: Back in Action”. In a career which spanned over fifty years, Goldsmith was nominated for the Academy Award eighteen times, the GRAMMY Award six times, and the Golden Globe Award four times. He also won an Oscar for his revolutionary score for “The Omen”. Jerry Goldsmith died on July 21, 2004, in Beverly Hills, California due to complications from Colon Cancer.

Irving Berlin

Composer

Irving Berlin, original name Israel Baline, (born May 11, 1888, Mogilyov, Russia [now in Belarus]—died Sept. 22, 1989, New York, N.Y., U.S.), American composer who played a leading role in the evolution of the popular song from the early ragtime and jazz eras through the golden age of musicals. His easy mastery of a wide range of song styles, for both stage and motion pictures, made him perhaps the greatest and most enduring of American songwriters.

Israel was born to the family of a Jewish cantor that immigrated to New York City in 1893. His father died when the boy was eight years old. Having obtained only two years of formal education, he worked as a street singer and a singing waiter in New York’s Lower East Side. He began writing song lyrics, and his first published song, “Marie from Sunny Italy,” appeared in 1907; a printer’s error on this song named him Irving Berlin, a surname that he subsequently kept. Berlin continued his writing and within a few years was a successful “song plugger,” demonstrating new tunes. He was unable to read or write musical notation and learned music by ear instead. He began writing his own music as well as lyrics, and in 1911 he wrote what quickly became the preeminent hit of Tin Pan Alley’s ragtime vogue, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” His first ballad, “When I Lost You,” was written in 1912. Then he began contributing to numerous Broadway revues and musical entertainments, including Florenz Ziegfeld’s Follies. In 1919 he founded the Irving Berlin Music Corporation to publish his own music. Through the following decades Berlin wrote the scores for several musicals, one of his most popular being Annie Get Your Gun (1946; film, 1950). He wrote more than 800 songs, many of which became classics, including “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” “A Pretty Girl Is like a Melody,” “Always” (written in 1925 as a wedding present for his second wife), “Remember,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “How Deep Is the Ocean,” “Blue Skies,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” the patriotic standard “God Bless America,” “Heat Wave,” and “There’s No Business like Show Business.” In the era of big motion-picture musicals, Berlin was able to transfer his stage success to the screen, writing the scores for many successful films, including Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), Easter Parade (1948), Call Me Madam (1953), and White Christmas (1954). His score for the film Holiday Inn (1942) introduced the touching ballad “White Christmas,” which became one of the most popular songs ever recorded. Altogether Berlin wrote the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 motion pictures. [BRITTANICA]

Mark Isham

Composer

Mark Isham is an electronic music innovator, jazz artist and prolific film composer.  He traverses the musical landscape with unique performances and imaginative scores. As a musician, his trumpet sound is described as cool, avant-garde, sexy, haunting – even achingly beautiful. He has performed worldwide, and collaborated with celebrated artists in multiple genres.

Mark Isham’s ability to create unforgettable melodies combined with his willingness to experiment with innovative musical palettes have earned him accolades including: GRAMMY and Emmy awards, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. Mark Isham’s collaborators include many of the most respected names in film and music – Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Brian De Palma, Frank Darabont, John Ridley, Jodi Foster, Robert Altman, Sting, Wil.I.Am, Sydney Lumet, and Mick Jagger. Mark Isham’s signature sound is heard on albums of music icons including Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Ziggy Marley, Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Chris Isaak, and Van Morrison. Isham’s inimitable musical voice is evident in his memorable scores for award-winning features including the Oscar-winning Crash and A River Runs Through It, along with Golden Globe winning Bobby, and The Black Dahlia. For The Black Dahlia, Isham was awarded “Best Score” by the International Film Music Critics Association. Originally from New York City, Mark Isham was exposed to all types of music through his parents who were musicians. The young Isham studied piano and violin, but the trumpet captured his imagination and became his signature instrument.  The Ishams moved from NYC to San Francisco, and by the age 15 Mark Isham was playing in jazz clubs, simultaneously performing with Oakland and San Francisco symphonies. He ultimately formed his own band Group 87.

isham.com

Notes

TELLING IMPACTFUL STORIES

For generations, the story of the American Soldier has been told on film and television, and in musical theater and video games. Many of the iconic themes that composers like Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Giacchino, and Max Steiner created will always be associated with stories such as The Great Escape, Patton, Medal of Honor, and Sergeant York - stories that capture powerful feelings of anticipation, suspense, struggle, and triumph.

SOUNDTRACK OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER is a celebration of these stories, the storytellers who craft them, and the real-life men and women who inspire them.

The U.S. Army Field Band’s mission is to connect the American people to their Army through music and storytelling. Col. Jim Keene, the commander and conductor of the Army Field Band, felt that recording in the Dolby Atmos immersive audio format would help create a deep and meaningful experience for the listener. He also knew it would highlight his ensemble’s strengths. As he puts it, “The properties of the immersive listening environment provide the opportunity to show exactly how good a group really sounds from within, which is a rare opportunity that only performers fully experience.”

Col. Keene reached out to GRAMMY-nominated producer Dan Merceruio and pitched him the idea of doing an immersive recording. Dan recalls Keene asking him where they should go. “And I said, ‘Well, of course. Let’s go to Skywalker.’”

Skywalker Sound’s origins are rooted in creating an immersive soundscape for the “low budget” film known as Star Wars, and have permeated all aspects of its operation ever since. They specialize in sound design, audio mixing, and sound post-production across multiple mediums. In short, it was the perfect place to create an immersive audio recording with the 90 musicians of The U.S. Army Field Band and its Soldiers’ Chorus.

Skywalker’s director of music recording and scoring, sound engineer Leslie Ann Jones, has won multiple GRAMMY awards and is well-versed in recording in immersive formats. She was quickly brought on board for the project. “We’ve done surround for a long time in this room,” she says, speaking from the main scoring stage where the Field Band recorded, “including 5.1.4 and 7.1.4, and of course we’ve been doing immersive film mixing for years. Pixar’s Brave was the first feature film mixed in Atmos. That was mixed here, and Skywalker was the first facility to have Atmos in every mix room.”

As the creative team brainstormed what music to record, it became clear that they wanted to not just record classic military film music, but to collaborate with the story-tellers themselves.

The Band commissioned composer Laura Karpman, who has four Emmy awards to her credit, to write a new piece of music. “I based the work on the life and career of four-star general Ann Dunwoody,” Karpman says. “[General Dunwoody’s] role in charge of Army logistics is the centerpiece of this work. I personify her as the conductor in a sense as there are all these moving elements in the ensemble...where you have the various supply lines within the groups of the ensemble moving at different places and paces. What she did was a monumental achievement and I hope the piece represents that.”

Joshua Moshier, a composer of many live action and animated television series, was also asked to compose a new work for the project. Speaking about his score, A Portrait of Honor, Moshier says, “My cousin graduated from West Point. Although the piece does not depict his specific experiences, it is inspired by my impressions of life in the service and the ideas behind serving. I hope that my gratitude for the work of our servicemen and servicewomen shines through in the music we’ve created together.”

Both Karpman and Moshier were eager to utilize the depth of the ensemble and take advantage of the opportunity of composing music with Dolby Atmos in mind. As more composers signed on to either endorse or arrange their music for the ensemble, it became clear to producer Dan Merceruio that a unique approach was needed. “We really wanted to embrace the idea of coming up with a unique arrangement for the musicians inside the space, depending on the instrumentation and based on the music for each tune,” says Merceruio. In preparation, he attended three days of rehearsals at the Band’s facility on Fort Meade, Maryland and conferred with the Band’s chief arranger, Master Sgt. Adrian Hernandez, whose arrangements are also on this recording.

The setups were created with the music scores in mind. “We always like to create balance,” Jones explains. “I place piano and harp on opposite sides, for example, because they often play in the same register. That informs these decisions—things like balancing out the percussion, having a nice, round woodwind sound—so it feels like it’s enveloping you, whatever activity there is in the orchestration.”

As the Band experimented with different setups, the importance of the detailed work they were doing became clear to Col. Keene. “Any time you change the environment of a musician, you change everything,” says Keene. “Moving even a couple of feet can completely change what you hear, not only from other instruments, but, more importantly, from your own! I remember a bassoon player who told me that when he sat in front of the trombones, he would often stop playing because, ‘What’s the point?’ When moving him 10 feet, he heard another universe. That same bassoonist then sat in the audience and shared that he had no idea that that was what the group sounded like.”

Several of the composers on the album were able to attend the recording sessions at Skywalker Sound, including Moshier; Joseph DeBeasi, the composer for American Sniper; and Mark Isham, the man who composed the theme for the long-running “Army Strong” campaign. Another key contributor to the project was longtime Hollywood conductor and orchestrator Tim Simonec, who orchestrated Michael Giacchino’s music for the video game Medal of Honor, and arranged the themes from Patton and The Great Escape for this recording.

“Something like this is such a collaborative endeavor,” Merceruio says in summation. “All of us are trusting each other to represent our roles at the highest level possible. In this case, the payoff is providing the listener with a deeper understanding of the music in a way that is more impactful than it otherwise would be.”