You grew up in a musical household, with your parents working with some legendary artists. How did that affect your decision to become one of the first female composers to go into film music?

My dad and mom both had very successful careers as a studio musician and a studio session singer, respectively. They entertained often, and our home was visited by numerous music VIPs. Additionally, they played good music around the house! From an early age I heard Bill Evans, Claus Ogerman, Michel Legrand–all gestating in my brain and soul way before I decided to pursue composing myself. This set a musical standard that I thought I needed to achieve if I were to pursue music professionally.

I studied piano, guitar and flute, and had made a great living in the studios as a “kid singer” on commercials, TV shows and movies, because I have perfect pitch and was a good sightreader. When it was time to make a career decision, however, I thought my only two options were pianist and singer, so I decided to forgo music and received my college degree in Radio/TV/Film production. Work as a P.A. followed, until a debilitating skiing accident changed my life. I was incapacitated for 9 months, and at the 7-month mark, on crutches at last, I was taken to lunch by a family friend, Gilda:

“Why aren’t you writing scripts? You have the time and connections.”
I responded, “I have no stories to tell.”
Gilda then asked, “Well, what is your big dream in life?”
“I would have liked to be a film composer like Johnny Mandel, but it’s too late–I’ve already finished college, and there are no women in the field.”
Gilda encouraged me–”Why don’t you study privately, and become the first woman?” So I did!

Your work on In the Heat of the Night, among many other TV series and TV movies, has earned you seven Emmy nominations. How has the business changed since you started as a TV composer?

There were no women composers in television, but as a ghost writer I was able to collect all of my recorded work and submit it around town; In spite of any kind of patriarchy, I was hired on the quality of my music. There were no demos; once I was composing under my own name I would have 5 days to spot and write the score, then show up and conduct the orchestra, where everyone was hearing it for the first time. If I hadn’t pleased the producers, I would have been fired, but I was hired week after week, and had an extensive career on numerous TV shows and TV movies.

Your arrangement of “Here’s That Rainy Day” for Natalie Cole won a Grammy. What do you think makes an arrangement truly great and reveals something new about a song?

I’ve always felt that the “art” of arranging is about taking a song (often an established one from The Great American Songbook) and reinventing it in a new way, for a new audience. Doing so requires re-harmonization, modulation, architecture, choosing the right orchestral palette–all tools designed to lead the listener on a journey to a climax. In the case of “Here’s That Rainy Day,” I was given complete freedom to create an arrangement for Natalie Cole, with the one requirement being to write in her key! The rest was up to me.

Hopefully, even the uneducated listener will hear a great arrangement and think “I really like that song!” even though it is the arrangement, not the song itself, that they are responding to.

You’ve orchestrated music for films ranging from Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Pinocchio, to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mank and Jurassic World Rebirth. When you’re orchestrating another composer’s music, how do you bring your musical intelligence to the work?

After years of experience writing, orchestrating, and conducting my own music, I bring those skills to the composer in order to do what they need to make their music sound as good as possible. That may involve re-voicing chords, re-harmonizing, adding new orchestral elements–anything that will “realize” the composer’s demos in the live orchestra, in a great studio like Abbey Road, and give the musicians well-written and interesting parts to play. I’ve succeeded when the best musicians in the world tell me “I liked playing the music” and the composer proudly says “I wrote that!”

When you look across your career–not just the most acknowledged work, is there a piece of music, project or musical moment that feels particularly like you? Why?

I would name two pieces: a) “Romanza,” for solo violin and orchestra, which debuted on my 2018 symphonic album; it represents my harmonic and melodic sensibilities in a beautiful and passionate orchestral setting.
b) “To Say Goodbye,” a song for which I wrote music and lyrics as an ode
to my late mother–my biggest role model in life. It became the underscore to a montage of photos and film clips I put together for her memorial in 2020.

It is my most personal work, and its intricate harmony and chromatic melody epitomizes my style.

And I should also include this arrangement of “Make Someone Happy.” I got deeply into it, because the lyrics are just so darn profound!

I even read a biography of Jule Styne to find out what he was thinking when he wrote it. Turns out it was a throw away song from a long-forgotten musical, with lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

And so I took this song that proclaims ‘love is the answer, someone to love is the answer’, slowed it way down, and reinvented it for a new audience. (Most people just know the Jimmy Durante version).

You’ve composed music for so many other genres, including musical theatre, ballet, podcasting, concert music and songwriting. What projects would you like to do but haven’t yet?

Since my earliest days as a composer, I have aspired to write a film score in the style of “The Sandpiper,” which was composed by Johnny Mandel.
Its use of a melodic and harmonically-rich theme interwoven throughout the score, coupled with the various colors he achieved with imaginative and skillful orchestration, is a high standard I think I could achieve. I have already written my own theme in this style for full orchestra, as well as reduced it to a song with simply voice and piano.

I welcome the opportunity to write such a film score in the future, but I’ll need a director with these sensibilities and the right project to showcase such a style.

If you could affect the future of film music, what would you change?

I long for a return to melodically-driven scores, as well as a broadening of harmonic language. So many scores today are triadic, never modulate, and emphasize sound design and ambience. As long as people with hearts and souls can love and cry, I believe they want to be touched and moved by a well-written melody, be it beautiful or haunting. This is what makes us human.

Interview by Valerie Manahan
Edited by Daisy Coole

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