MUSA - Key Persons
Adam Klemens (born 14th of January, 1967, in Prague) studied composition at the Prague Conservatory (Vadim Petrov) and the Music Faculty of the Academy of Arts (Vaclav Riedlbauch), and conducting at the Prague Conservatory with his father Mario Klemens. He is the author of orchestral and concertante works and of a series of chamber music pieces. His compositions have won several prizes in composing competitions (Generace 89, 91, and the Czech Ministry of Culture Prize 1990). In 1994 he was chosen by Florida State University to compose a piece for symphonic wind orchestra, which was premiered in 1995 in his presence (Windy Music)..
As a conductor he has concentrated on 20th-Century music. He has worked with various ensembles including Prague Percussion Plus, the Suk Chamber Orchestra, and the Bambini di Praga Children's Choir. In 1995 and 1997 he was principal conductor of the Czech Jeunesses Musicales String Orchestra. He often works as a studio conductor during recordings of film, game and stage music as well as orchestrator and arranger of symphonic music.
He is professor of music theory at the Prague Conservatoire and editor of the magazine Czech Music, published by the Czech Music Information Centre.
Andy Brick is a prolific composer, conductor and symphonist of music for film, television, live concerts and interactive games. He has extensive experience in composing and recording live and midi orchestral scores for cinematic soundtracks and is a winner of numerous prestigious awards for his original music, including ASCAP Young Film Composer Award, ASCAP Popular Music Award, and CINE Golden Eagle Award. Brick's music has also premiered and/or won Best Original Score accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Sony International Film Festival. In August 2003 Brick conducted the World's first symphony concert to feature music from Western and Japanese videogames held at Gewandaus, Leipzig in Germany. Brick scored the fanfare to this historic concert event performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, which officially opened GC-Games Convention 2003.
Andy Brick's award-winning music has enhanced a variety of critically acclaimed films including Chatham County (Sony International Film Festival), The Story of the Red Rose (Sundance Film Festival), and Uphill All The Way (Lean Parador Pictures) featuring Susan Sarandon. As the protege of Walt Disney Pictures' Senior Composer and Orchestrator Danny Troob, Brick wrote scores for animated movies such as Little Mermaid II and The Lady and The Tramp II. Other film credits include Awake (Lucine Productions), The Trial of Fentris Waterloo (Independent Feature Film Market & First Run Film Festival), and Graduation Day (Spenelli Films). Earlier this year, Brick completed orchestration for the TV movie The Music Man (ABC) featuring Matthew Broderick. Productions for American Express, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Warner Bros. also feature music by Andy Brick.
In games he has composed music for projects by Electronic Arts, Sony, Interplay, Broderbund, Saffire, Mattel, JoWood, and Konami. His game score credits include Rick Dyer's (of Dragon's Lair fame) The Far Reaches, for which a bonus soundtrack album of Brick's music was released. He also scored Dyer's epic Tolkien-like fantasy adventure Kingdom II: Shadoan released on PC and PlayStation 2. In 2002, Brick provided new music for the US release of Arc The Lad Collection (Working Designs), one of the best- selling RPG videogame series in Japan. Furthermore he has written music for the groundbreaking game music symphony album Merregnon II (www.merregnon.com) recorded with members of the Prague Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic Choir. As Music Director/Composer, Conductor and Senior Orchestrator, Brick worked alongside producer Thomas Böcker (Merregnon Studios), and veteran game composers such as Yuzo Koshiro (Shenmue) and Chris Huelsbeck (Star Wars: Rogue Squadron).
Mario Klemens has written a history of the film music in former Czechoslovakia and currently in the Czech Republic for more than 25 years. He has been credited at hundreds of films conducting Film Symphonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic and being a guest conductor of many symphonic bodies and festivals in Poland, Hungary, Bulgary, France, Cuba an others.
He graduated from the Prague Conservatory with Prof. Vaclav Smetacek in 1959 and completed his study at Music Academy in Prague with Miloslav Kabelac. His talent has been soon recognized (Conductors Competition in France - 1st Prize - 1966) and is revered and sought-after as an interpret of 20th century, he performed more than one hundred contemporary compositions, most of them he also premiered.
He has made more than 150 film music recordings co-operating with many Czech and foreign recording companies (for which he records with orchestras including Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Warsaw National Philharmonic - Poland). Mario Klemens' repertoire includes many oratorio and cantata compositions of both Czech and world music literature. Thanks to the many years' engagements with different orchestras he is a conductor with a large experience in wide range of musical genres.
Peter Murphy (born 1954) studied music at the University of Oxford, and played French Horn in youth orchestras under such conductors as John Carewe and the late great Norman del Mar, who gave him invaluable guidance during his early attempts at composition. He also studied 20th century composition technique at Oxford under composer and Messiaen expert Robert Sherlaw Johnson. He produced a substantial body of student compositions, many of which were successfully performed.
After giving up full-time musical studies, he concentrated on performance, particularly of central European folk music. His London-based folk group, Beksydy, has performed in folk festivals in the UK and abroad. He has returned to composition in recent years, writing a number of chamber works including a trilogy of pieces for string quartet, solo cello, and a yet-to-be completed piece for clarinet and strings. The overall title of this trilogy is Arc-en-Ciel. As well as taking on classical arrangements of 1990s rock bands, he is currently working on a musical cabaret, Desire, set in the 1970s pre-Aids gay community in the USA. Two music theatre pieces are also planned in the near future, one set in ancient Egypt and one in 20th century Prague. He recently joined the Musa team as orchestrator, producing a score for the game music concert opening the Leipzig GC Games convention in 2003.
Peter is a frequent visitor to the Czech Republic, working with Czech Orchestras and Musicians, as well as with the Prague-based English composer and rock musician Jaz Coleman.
Job Titles:
- Expert
- Professor of Arrangement and Music Theory at the "Hochschule Der Populären Künste
Stefan Behrisch (1971) - Orchestrator/Arranger - studied composition, arrangement and music theory at the Amsterdam, Essen and Cologne Universities of Music. He is an experienced composer, arranger and orchestrator in a broad variety of styles and ensembles. He specializes in orchestration and music preparation and has a wide range of experience with dozens of orchestral CD productions, movie scores, TV and radio broadcasts and live concert performances.
He worked with composers/ arrangers such as Vince Mendoza, Michael Gibbs, George Gruntz for artists Pat Metheny, Elvis Costello, Ivan Lins, The Brecker Brothers, Helene Fischer; and orchestras including the LA Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphonic Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra; and for record companies Verve, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony/BMG, Universal - among many others.
Stefan is an expert on the transcription and arrangement of MIDI material from any source (Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer etc.) into finished orchestral scores and instrumental parts. He also offers his attendance at recording sessions and is able to prepare new orchestral material within minutes should changes to the score be required.
Job Titles:
- Music Producer / Score Reader