Conversations from the Sundance Institute Labs | Composer Kathryn Bostic (CLEMENCY) on Film Music
About this Event Recording
Go behind the scenes to learn from Sundance Institute Advisors in our Conversations from the Labs series. This collection of 90-minute videos will deepen your understanding of all the creative disciplines that are supported through our Labs including Feature Film Directing and Writing, TV Writing, Emerging Media, Documentary, Producing, Film Music, and Theater.
In this video, Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music Program and Composer Kathryn Bostic discuss how race informs her work as an artist. Using clips from two films she has scored, TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM and CLEMENCY, Bostic shares her approach to composing for film and her advice for juggling the many elements of a composer's career. She describes music as "sonic storytelling" and advises new directors to view music as a character in film, an element capable of moving the story forward and helping with pacing. She closes by encouraging all artists to embrace autonomy and to "marinade in your authenticity."
Other conversations in the series include those with editor Dylan Tichenor, actor/director Ed Harris, writer/director Karyn Kusama, writer/director/producer Kasi Lemmons, cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, and others.
Event RecordingTeam
Peter Golub
Moderator
Peter Golub is the composer of numerous works for film, the concert hall, theatre and dance. His film scores include: Frozen River (directed by Courtney Hunt and nominated for 2 Academy Awards); The Laramie Project (for HBO); The Great Debaters (directed by Denzel Washington and co-composed with James Newton Howard); Wordplay (directed by Patrick Creadon); Countdown to Zero (dir by Lucy Walker); Sound of a Dream (dir by Zhang Wei); and Songs My Brothers Taught Me (dir by Chloe Zhao). Scores for Broadway include: The Country House (by Donald Marguiles, directed by Daniel Sullivan, with Blythe Danner), The Heiress (directed by Moises Kaufman, with Jessica Chastain) and Hedda Gabler (directed by Nicholas Martin, with Kate Burton).
In his early career he was Composer-in-Residence for Charles Ludlam's legendary Ridiculous Theatrical Company in Greenwich Village, along with considerable work composing music for the theatre with Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival (including numerous productions at the Delacorte in Central Park as well as at the Public downtown) and at La Mama, including work with Ethyl Eichelberger, Ellen Stewart, Jospeh Chaikin and others. His musical, Ampigorey, with book, lyrics and designs by Edward Gorey, was produced at the American Music Theater Festival (Philadelphia), as well as at the American Repertory Theatre (ART) in Cambridge, culminating in an off-Broadway run at the Perry Street Theatre in NY. Amphigorey was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Musical.
His ballet based on Gorey's The Gilded Bat, choreography by Peter Anastos, was commissioned by Ballet West and performed at the Kennedy Center and throughout the US. Other ballets were commissioned by the Miami City Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet. Recent concert music includes: Sleepwalking (a cello concerto), Ghost Songs (for voice and piano, to texts by Thomas Hardy), Six Dirty Limericks, Garden Paths (for flute, viola and Harp), Florestan & Eusebius (for saxophone quartet) and A Child of Children and Art (commissioned by pianist Anthony de Mare as part of a set of original piano pieces in tribute to Stephen Sondheim). He studied composition with Toru Takemitsu and Henry Brant.
Golub is the Director of the Sundance Film Music Program and teaches at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Kathryn Bostic
Panelist
Emmy nominated and award winning composer and singer/songwriter Kathryn Bostic is known for her work on film, TV and theater. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Television Academy. Kathryn is a recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including the prestigious Time Warner-Sundance Fellowship, Sundance Fellowship for Feature Film Scoring, BMI Conducting Fellowship, Sundance Fellowship for Documentary Film Scoring.