Music for Pixar Films

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BUYSOUNDTRAX RECORDS TO RELEASE MUSIC FROM THE WALT DISNEY/PIXAR FILMS UP RATATOUILLE, THE INCREDIBLES FOR SOLO PIANO

New Recording Spotlights Michael Giacchino’s Scores For These Beloved Films
Performed by Pianists Mark Northam and Joohyun Park

(January 10, 2012) – BuySoundtrax Records is proud to announce the release of Music From The Walt Disney/Pixar Films Up, Ratatouille, The Incredibles For Solo Piano featuring piano performances by Joohyun Park (The Incredibles) and Mark Northam (Up, Ratatouille) of Michael Giacchino’s music from these beloved films. The recording, which features extensive liner notes by Jeff Bond, will be available digitally on January 24th.

Michael Giacchino’s career included composing numerous videogames for Walt Disney. In 2004, Giacchino, who had moved to TV as the composer of Alias and Lost was hired to write music for his first feature film, Walt Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles. -- an animated film about a family of superheroes. The Incredibles featured an upbeat jazz orchestral sound and became both a critical and commercial success. In 2007, he teamed again with Incredibles director Brad Bird for the animated film Ratatouille, which earned Giacchino his first Academy Award™ nomination. After tackling more adult fare, including Cloverfield and Star Trek, Giacchino would once again be part of a Disney/Pixar production, 2010’s Up, which would earn Giacchino his first Oscar.

“I tried to focus on those tracks that both worked well without picture, and presented Michael's excellent melodies in a way that worked effectively with solo piano,” said Northam about his approach to performing Up and Ratatouille for solo piano. “For both films, I found that the more melodic and emotional cues were the best fit. One aspect that was particularly challenging to do for some of these cues was to reduce a dense orchestration—especially on faster, more action-oriented cues, to something that worked well on solo piano and didn't come off sounding like a piano trying to sound like an orchestra, which of course it can't.”

Mark Northam started studying classical piano at age 4 with a focus on jazz during his teenage years. After high school, mark toured the USA with a number of jazz acts including his own jazz trio, and performed with Bob Hope. After settling in Los Angeles, he attended the UCLA Extension Film Scoring Program, was selected by ASCAP for the ASCAP Fred Karlin Film Scoring Workshop, and went on to create Film Music Magazine, the Film Music Network, and the Film Music Institute in Los Angeles.

Pianist Joohyun Park was born in Kwang-Ju, South Korea. She began studying music at age 6. Park received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees of Piano from Yon Sei Univeristy (Seoul, Korea) and a Bachelor’s Degree of Contemporary Writing and Production from Boston’s famed Berklee College of Music. She has worked as a score coordinator, pianist, orchestrator and assistant composer for movies including Priest, The Informers, Drag Me To Hell, Creation, When in Rome, The Black Tulip, and Love Happens. She also recently performed on the recent BuySoundtrax release Music from Battlestar Galactica for Solo Piano.

"My starting point was the Hal Leonard's Disney's The Incredibles piano book,” said Park. “The melodies seemed overly simplified for me. I created my own arrangements utilizing melodies from the original soundtrack to round out the tracks. I tried to stay very close to the original sound, which was fun, bright, and upbeat."

“I come away from the project with an ever greater admiration for Michael and his music,” Northam says. “It's been a long time since I've seen a composer as gifted at writing melody as Michael Giacchino is, and it was a pleasure and an honor to record his music."

Music From The Walt Disney/Pixar Films Up, Ratatouille, The Incredibles For Solo Piano will be available digitally on January 24, 2012.

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