William Goldstein
William Goldstein has scored over 50 movie and television projects, including Fame and The Miracle Worker. He has been a recording artist for both Motown and CBS Masterworks. His label is distributed worldwide by The Orchard with over 70 albums currently available averaging between 2 & 11,000,000 streams monthly. He has written on the arts for The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. He has been a pioneer in the use of computers and electronic instruments in music. Since 2011 he has received international recognition for his ability to create music in real-time, continuing the tradition of the great 18th and 19th-century composer pianists. His recent classical crossover release Remembering Mariupol has generated over 850,000 Streams.
Aram Shahbazians
Aram Shahbazians is a composer and sound designer with more than 10 years of experience in the industry working on games, films, trailers, and commercials, his works have also been performed live by orchestras and ensembles. He made audio and music for Cyberpunk 2077, Song Of Horror, Redout, and Redout: Space Assault, among other titles. In 2020 the soundtrack for Redout: Space Assault won Best Music at the Megamigs Awards in Canada. In 2018 he worked as a composer, orchestrator, and consultant for the organization of Other Worlds, one of the biggest video game music concerts in Italy in collaboration with the Carlo Felice orchestra. Currently, he's an Audio Director at Jyamma Games, working on Enotria: The Last Song.
Alice Atkinson
Alice Atkinson is a classically trained Saxophonist who graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and joined Air-Edel in 2016. Before joining she involved herself with conservatoire and London-based PR campaigns, freelance agent work, and events management. Alice now works closely with Air-Edel composers, music editors, and musical directors to manage their projects and negotiate contracts. She focuses on establishing new business opportunities for Air-Edel clients and the business overall.
Hannes Tschürtz
Hannes Tschürtz is a founder of Ink Music, an independent label and publishing house in Vienna, Austria, established in 2001. Hannes is a leading member of Europe in Synch; a founder/director of a Music Film Festival (Poolinale, 2011-16), and an occasional music consultant for films. Sometimes also a lecturer, speaker, and mentor in music business matters. He already looks back on two decades of work in the field and is a highly active figure in various organisations like the Austrian Music Fund or the local IFPI board.
Elmo Nüganen
Elmo Nüganen is an Estonian theatre director, film director, and actor. He was the artistic director of the Tallinn City Theatre from 1992 to 2021. He is a graduate of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater from 1988 and is a professor at the academy. He directed the war films Names in Marble (2002) and 1944 (2015). Names in Marble was seen by more than 168 000 people in Estonia and was selected for the 2003 Taormina Film Fest, while 1944 had the highest opening-week audience numbers in Estonian film history and became the country's submission for the Academy Awards. Nüganen has received multiple awards for his work in theater, including the Estonian Annual Theater Award for Best Director in 1992, 1995, 2000, 2007, and 2010, and the Estonian National Cultural Award in 1996, 1999, and 2009.
Opening of Music Meets Film 2022
Introduction to this year’s program by Music Meets Film curator Michael Pärt.
Recorded web stream
Opening panel: Current trends
MMF’s opening panel touches on current trends in the scoring, gaming, and music industry. The panelists will share their experiences in the industry. Michael Pärt will moderate composer Aram Shahbazians, agent & score supervisor, Alice Atkinson, composer Quentin Sirjacq, and composer Nicolas Becker.
Recorded web stream
MMF Trio Series
This year’s Trio Series will touch on “How Directors Think - How Composers Think & How Editors Think”. Moderator Kaarel Kuurmaa will take us on a retrospective case study of 2022’s two installments of the Melchior the Apothecary feature films with composer Liina Sumera, director Elmo Nüganen, and editor - Marion Koppel.
Recorded web stream
How to become a music agent
Why is the role of an agent for creatives so important, and how to enter this field and develop skills to become and grow as an artists’ agent? Music agent and score supervisor Alice Atkinson from the internationally-renowned agency Air-Edel will take us on a journey to explore these - and many other questions. Moderated by music agent and consultant Thea Zaitsev.
Recorded web stream
Keeping the intellectual property in order
Renato Horvath and Hannes Tschürtz specialise in the licensing process as labels, publishers, sync agents, and music supervisors. Together with artist and performer Maarja Nuut, we will hear their relevant story for performing artists, ensembles, bands, managers, agents, songwriters & composers about their experience in getting the licensing and contractual part of ones' business in order and have all ducks in a row. This panel is moderated by Toomas Olljum.
Recorded web stream
Speed Networking
An opportunity to meet this year's panelists and mentors in a round of informal 5-minute speed meetings.
Live scoring to film: Fred Jüssi. The Beauty of Being
Acclaimed Composer William Goldstein will show us his unique talent by creating an instant score on stage for a live audience whilst watching Jaan Tootsen’s 65-minute feature documentary Fred Jüssi. The Beauty of Being for the very first time.
Recorded web stream
Live scoring to film: “Fred Jüssi. The Beauty of Being” Q&A
Following the live-scoring film screening, we will be part of a dialogue between film director Jaan Tootsen and William Goldstein, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Recorded web stream
William Goldstein - Live scoring to film: Fred Jüssi. The Beauty of Being
Photo by Anna Pärt
One-on-one mentorships @ Music Estonia
Meet a selection of this year’s MMF panelists and mentors for a 20-minute for 1:1 mentorship session.
Music Tech Talk @ Music Estonia
Selected MMF panelists lead the conversations on all matters of technology — what gear do we use, which machines work best, plugin finds, and which workflow makes a composers' setup work best.
My Greatest Failures @ Music Estonia
Panelists composer William Goldstein and Agent & Score Supervisor Alice Atkinson share their greatest failures, trials, and tribulations, and how they’ve come out of them stronger.
Music Meets Film Award and Happy Composer Hour @ Nordic Hotel Forum
Announcement of the MMF Award 2022 winner and the prizes of EUR 2000 and generous collections of Orchestral Tools virtual instrument licenses handover. Round off the festival with a relaxed evening of music, drinks, and cultivated conversation with fellow composers, filmmakers, and Music Meets Film guests during the MMF “Happy Composer Hour”.
MMF Speed Networking
Photo by Anna Pärt
Mike Newell is an English film and television director and producer. He won the BAFTA for Best Direction for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and subsequently directed the films Donnie Brasco (1997) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) after what Newell became the first British director to helm an instalment of the hugely popular franchise. Newell’s recent feature credits include Prince of Persia, Great Expectations and Guernsey.
Jan Holmberg is CEO of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation. A Ph.D. in cinema studies from Stockholm University, Holmberg is the author of books (on early cinema, film in the digital era and Ingmar Bergman), as well as numerous articles on cinema, visual arts, literature and music. In 2018, he was editor-in-chief of Ingmar Bergmans skrifter (“Ingmar Bergman’s Writings”), a 40+ volume edition published by Norstedts of Bergman’s film scripts, prose, essays and journals.
Anyssa Neumann is a concert pianist and musicologist based in Sweden, where she holds a postdoctoral position at Uppsala University in the Engaging Vulnerability Research Program. She earned her PhD in musicology from King’s College London in 2017, focusing on pre-existing music in the films of Ingmar Bergman, which she has developed into a lecture recital and presented in the USA, Canada, England, Spain, and Sweden. She has guest lectured on film music topics at the City University of London, Stockholm University, Hebrew University, and the University of Washington.
Nina Degraeve is a Belgian film director. Her first school documentary was on the Belarusian painter, Igor Tishin, after which she directed Boris Lehman: portrait of the unfinished. She worked as a trainee production assistant at Les Films du Fleuve under the supervision of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Her graduation piece, the film Ray Richardson: Our side of the water has been showcased in festivals around the world and won 8 awards. Degraeve’s thesis was on the cinema of Andreï Zviaguinstev that led her to write a book about his work. Currently, she is preparing a feature documentary "From screen to canvas".
David William Hearn is a composer, arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist, designer, entrepreneur and developer. He has written and produced music for film, television, popular artists, advertising and spectacular live events. Hearn is also known for his work supporting successful composers on their large scale projects, from additional orchestration and production, to score mockups and mixing. He has created professional software Staffpad, a music notation app that other composers use around the world to write music with on a daily basis
@ Nordic Hotel Forum, Tallinn
Opening of Music Meets Film 2021 by Michael Pärt, curator of Music Meets Film
Opening panel: Current Trends and Covid-19 by composer Mihkel Zilmer, director Mike Newell and cinematographer Alar Kivilo
Opening Doors - Cinematographer Alar Kivilo and director Scott Hicks
Photo by Vivian Avent
@ Arvo Pärt Centre, Laulasmaa
Fighting Ideological Supression - Speaking Through Music by scientist and mathematician Tarmo Soomere & musicologist Kerri Kotta
Recorded web stream
Wagner, Inventor of Cinema by film scholar Jan Holmberg - Film scholar Jan Holmberg explores the fascinating effect Richard Wagner's creative legacy had on establishing the format of cinema itself and music in films. From his own proto-cinema to how his music founds its way to early films, the '30s and '40s in Hollywood and being directly quoted in films.
Recorded web stream
"Loveless" by Andrej Zvyagintsev – context in music and silence - Director Nina Degraeve takes us to the musical universe of "Loveless" by the Russian filmmaker Andrei Zvyagintsev's. Through his work we will see an introduction to the meaning of music and the implication of silences - and the resulting heightened moment of the narrative.
Recorded web stream
A Lecture-Recital by Anyssa Neumann: Classical Music in the Films of Ingmar Bergman - This lecture-recital by pianist and film musicologist Anyssa Neumann explores the appearance, function, and meaning of classical music in Bergman's work, from his earliest films in the 1940s to his last in 2003. This presentation will feature musical scenes from a wide selection of Bergman's films, alongside live performances of piano works by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt.
Recorded web stream
Introduction of screening by film scholar and Bergman specialist Jan Holmberg
Screening of Ingmar Bergman's "Saraband" - Saraband (2003) is Ingmar Bergman's final film, standing at the end of his six-decade-long artistic journey. An unflinching chamber drama centered around the conflict between a young cellist and her family, the film demonstrates how music can be part of both the narrative fabric and the technical apparatus, functioning as structure, sound, act, presence, content, and even a kind of religious philosophy, combined into a sophisticated whole.
Photo by Vivian Avent
@ Nordic Hotel Forum, Tallinn
Case study: Approach to Music - A Director’s View - Director Mike Newell lays out his approach of planning score. Moderation by Ardo Ran Varres
"Il Canto Nascosto" Musical forms as building blocks of a poetic image in Tarkovsky’s cinema - Taking as an example Andrey Tarkovsky’s masterpiece, “The mirror”, the master's son Andrey A. Tarkovsky will analyze its visual structure in a close relationship between image sequences, the soundscape and the use of music in order to establish a link between musical composition and the creation of a cinematic image. Moderation by Sten-Kristian Saluveer.
Digital notation with a handwritten approach by David Hearn
The intuitiveness of composing on paper with all the benefits of the DAW? We are inviting David Hearn from Staffpad to examine how visual interfaces and software can support the composing experience without forcing a fundamental change in workflow. Headsup composers, songwriters, arrangers, orchestrators, teachers and conductors!
Music Tech Talk - Composers Tuomas Nikkinen, Hendrik Schwarzer and Mihkel Zilmer lead the conversations on all aspects technical. What gear do we use, which machines work best, plugin finds - and which workflow makes a composers' setup work best. The conversation might get a little nerdy, and the intention is to strike up a dialogue with the audience! Moderation by Mikko Raita.
My Greatest Failures by director Mike Newell and cinematographer Alar Kivilo
Mike Newell and Alar Kivilo share their trials and tribulations - and how they’ve come out of it stronger!
Music Meets Film Award - To celebrate 10 years of Music Meets Film, we are announcing and introducing the MMF Award — designed to support and promote talented young composers from the local region. Here, we will announce this year's winner, and award their prizes of EUR2000 and an Orchestral Tools virtual instrument license. Moderation by Hendrik Schwarzer.
Happy Composer Hour - Round off the festival with a relaxed evening of music, drinks, and cultivated conversation with fellow composers, film makers and MMF guests. Make new connections or catch up with old friends — this informal happy hour might mark the end of this year's Music Meets Film, but it could also be the start of a great night out in Tallinn...
Photo by Vivian Avent
Danny Elfman, a four-time Oscar nominee, has established himself as one of the most versatile and accomplished film composers in the industry for over 30 years. Elfman has scored over 100 films. Danny Elfman and Tim Burton forged one of the most fruitful composer-director collaborations in film history. In addition to his film work, Elfman wrote the iconic theme music for the television series The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.
Alan Davey is responsible for leadership of Classical music across the BBC, which includes the classical and speech output on BBC Radio 3, the BBC Proms and overall leadership of the BBC Orchestras and Choirs from 2015. He is also project sponsor for the Eastbank project, building new orchestral and music studios in the emerging cultural quarter of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Alan is Chair of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and presently sits on the Board of the English Folk Dance and Song Society and of the Hall for Cornwall.
Valgeir Sigurðsson is an Icelandic composer and producer. His music blends contemporary classical writing and esoteric electronic production, sometimes to a point where one is indistinguishable from the other. He worked closely with fellow Icelander Björk, a collaboration which began with her Oscar-nominated score for Lars Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark. Valgeir Sigurðsson's scores frequently incorporate the use of electronics and have also been performed by orchestras focused in the UK and USA.
Andrey A. Tarkovsky is the son of Andrey Tarkovsky and has devoted his life and career to the preservation and promotion of his father’s work. He lives between Florence, Paris and Moscow.
Gavin Greenaway is an Emmys award-winning composer, conductor, recording artist and pianist with an extensive catalogue of achievements: conducting over 100 feature film and television soundtracks, composing for major entertain-ment and cultural events, producing and songwriting with chart-topping artists and the release of 2 solo piano classical albums. In 2018, Gavin was appointed the Musical Director for The World of Hans Zimmer live concerts across Europe. In recent years, he has been instrumental in bringing some of our best-loved soundtracks to the live stage.
Kaisa Rönkkö has been Executive Director of Music Finland since June 2018. She has a passion to deliver the message of the power of music and develop the international dialogue and innovation between premium content and new technologies and digital services. Prior to Music Finland Kaisa was employed as a head of the orchestra department at the Finnish National Opera ballet. She has also been employed as an artist manager and partner at Finland’s largest artist management agency, and as assistant at the Finnish Cultural Institute in Copenhagen.
Marko Ahtisaari is an entrepreneur, designer and musician. He is currently an Artistic Director of the Helsingin juhlaviikot / Helsinki Festival, the largest multi-arts festival in the Nordics held annually. From 2009 to 2013 Ahtisaari was the head of product design at Nokia, responsible for hardware, user experience and packaging design. He left Nokia to be an entrepreneur again. He studied philosophy, economics and music at Columbia University, where he became a lecturer and Fellow of the Faculty in the Department of Philosophy.
Vaiko Eplik is an independent Estonian pop-composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist.
He has been part of several collectives: Claire's Birthday, Ruffus and Koer. In 2006, Eplik started his solo project under the name Eliit. By 2020 he has released twenty three albums, regularly reaching the top of Estonian album charts. Vaiko Eplik is the Chairman of the Board for the Estonian Authors´ Society Eesti Autorite Ühing since July 2020.
Helen Sildna is based in Estonia, has been a music promoter and events producer for 20 years. Having worked at Baltics’ biggest concert agency BDG (currently Live Nation) as an international talent booker, she established her own music promotion company Shiftworks in 2008. Helen is the founder and owner of Tallinn Music Week. The festival is focusing on music industry conferences and being a showcase festival.
Michael Pärt is a Music Producer and Music Editor working on film scores since 2000. His experience spans from music conception, spotting and production through to dubbing as well as soundtracks and temp scoring. Away from production, he co-founded the Arvo Pärdi Keskus / Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia. He chairs the foundation which aim is to preserve and research the creative heritage of his father’s legacy. He is the curator for the Music Meets Film programme since 2017.
Valuing Local Territory in Global Industry by Vaiko Eplik, Alan Davey, Valgeir Sigurðsson and Kaisa Rönkkö. Moderation by Helen Sildna
Recorded web stream
Choosing Doors - A conversation with Danny Elfman (Composer) Moderation by Marko Ahtisaari
Recorded web stream
Photo by Vivian Avent
Production Processes Affecting Creativity - Online discussion panel with Andrey A. Tarkovsky and Gavin Greenaway. Moderation by Michael Pärt
Recorded web stream
Photo by Vivian Avent
Richard Harvey is a British composer and production company West One Music Group co-founder Richard Harvey is a BAFTA award winner, a respected orchestral conductor and a virtuoso performer on a wide range of Western and ethnic instruments.
After working with film composer Maurice Jarre in the mid of 1970s, he became involved in composing for film and television. Richard Harvey has scored over 80 television and film projects to date, from British television series, documentaries and feature length TV films, to major Hollywood movies.
Peter Oxendale is a musicologist and copyright infringement specialist. He has lectured and given seminars on music copyright and related matters to a number of library music and production houses as well as academic institutions. In addition to his classical musical training and activities as a consultant musicologist and expert witness in all fields of music, he is a writer of songs, advertising jingles and library music. He is also active as a producer, a musical director, an arranger, a session musician, a conductor and a programmer.
Tom Player is a British composer working in film trailers, advertising & live music. Having a background in film, Tom previously assisted composers Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi, Lorne Balfe & Richard Harvey. Receiving multiple industry awards for his work on advertising campaigns, Tom Player's company has recently completed a dance-meets-classical tour for Ministry of Sound, titled "The Annual Classical".
Mihkel Zilmer is a versatile composer and music producer for Film, TV, Interactive Media and Advertising. He has scored more than 70 projects, including the all-time highest viewer count and box-office hit in Estonia, ‘Tõde ja õigus’ (Truth and Justice, 2019), as well as multiple award-winning and award-nominated films, notably: Burden of Peace (NL), Alles Is Gezegd (NL), Volgens Protocol (NL). With a predominantly classical training background, the foundation of his musical output is orchestral music, often blended with ethnic, electronic and experimental elements.
Michael J McEvoy is an eclectic film and television composer following a successful career in jazz and as a pop songwriter/producer.
He studied at the Royal College of Music, London. His feature film scores include Finding Your Feet, Me and Orson Welles and new release The Drifters. Recent documentaries include the award-winning score for BBC/PBS’s Jazz Ambassadors and BBC’s Churchill & the Movie Mogul.
Jussi Jaakonaho is a composer, musician and music producer from Helsinki, Finland.
He has had a long and very successful career working with Finland’s top artists, mostly in the rock and pop genres. His instrumental solo album Ghost Riot (2017) immediately resulted in getting offers for TV & film score work, which are now the main focus for Jussi. The award-winning TV series All The Sins (Kaikki synnit, 2019) featured a lot of his signature sound with string instruments and electronic sonic landscapes.
Christian Baierle is the CEO of ROBA Music Publishing, one of the leading independent music publishers in the world with a concentration on film and sync. He studied media law in Hamburg and Oxford and was a fellow at Harvard University. His book about music publishing has become the standard book on this topic. Prof. Dr. Baierle is a member of the committee for popular music within the German music publisher’s association. He is the author of numerous publications and regularly teaches courses in this field.
@ Nordic Hotel Forum, Tallinn
Opening of Music Meets Film 2019
Open panel: Current scoring trends & future directions - Composers Richard Harvey, Mihkel Zilmer and Jussi Jaakonaho will share their experiences from their extensive film and TV scoring careers and delve into a broader discussion on current scoring trends and the future direction of the industry.
Panel moderated by Michael Pärt.
Production music options for composers - Composer and production company West One Music founder Richard Harvey lays out a composer’s playing field options. Making original music and production music co-exist.
Smart music licensing - Music publishing and synch licensing expert Prof. Dr. Christian Baierle lays out the world of licensing, agreements and contractual contexts that are relevant for film and TV composers and film production music departments alike.
This session will explain the various licensing concepts for music in film and TV and will tell the audience what works, how to license smart and how to avoid risks and how to even gain back from licensing costs. There will be a strong emphasis on production music and its value for both composers and film production companies.
Case study: Jussi Jaakonaho – Tolerance of “music nationality” within film and TV scoring - With a vast range of visual styles and cultures within the film industry, the understanding of “nationality” within a film score often results in a generic approach. Finnish composer Jussi Jaakonaho explores this nuanced thought process - often overlooked, and discusses how much local flavour a film score can tolerate.
Case study moderated by Michael Pärt.
In collaboration with TV Beats programme
Photo by Vivian Avent
@ Arvo Pärt Centre, Laulasmaa
Introduction to the Arvo Pärt Centre
Discussion panel: Forensic musicologist Peter Oxendale on copyright and temp score love - Internationally-renowned British forensic musicologist and copyright infringement specialist Peter Oxendale sets the record straight on why the music industry and the law are out of sync with each other. We will hear about common copyright misconceptions, the myth of the so-called 3- or 8- note rule, and about style-alikes – soundalikes and passing off. Oxendale will also look into the director’s dilemma of Temp Love and the plagiarism that often follows. Discussion moderated by British film composer Tom Player.
Case Study: Richard Harvey – Historic and ethnic instruments in film music - Multi-instrumentalist and composer Richard Harvey will introduce the emotional narrative and practical context of historic and ethnic instruments in film music – and how these connect to his career – starting off as an instrumentalist and becoming a film composer.
Case study moderated by Estonian composer Ardo Ran Varres.
Truth and Justice (Tõde ja õigus) composition workflow with Mihkel Zilmer - Film and interactive media composer Mihkel Zilmer shares insight into his creative process from conception to final product - from creating a palette, to script-inspired conceptual composition, the dialogue between composer and editor, and the cooperation between music and sound departments.
Case Study: Michael J McEvoy – Themes and developing one’s own compositional voice - American Multi-instrumentalist and composer Michael McEvoy shares his creative world, spanning Classical film and TV scoring through to Jazz. Through material from his recent projects, feature film Finding your feet (2018) as well as feature-length documentary The Jazz Ambassadors (2018), McEvoy will give us an insight into his workflow, his writing technique and developing a compositional voice – across multiple projects and collaborators.
Film screening "Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound" (2019) - Director Midge Costin
A feature-length documentary exploring the art, history, and aesthetics of sound in film, and by extension, sound on Earth. Examining how visionary directors work with sound designers to create the most exciting cinematic experiences. Also, featuring the latest discoveries and advances in sound technology to learn how sounds transform the cinematic experience.
Photo by Vivian Avent
@ Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn
Masterclass: Dramaturgy in scoring by means of themes and leitmotifs - American Multi-instrumentalist and composer Michael McEvoy takes an in-depth look at a thematic approach in film scoring and explores the world of “leitmotifs” – how directors and composers can use this as a tool to steer dramaturgy in film and music.
Masterclass: Composing in the physical and virtual world - Tom Player (Lost Track Production) leads a talk focusing on Physical vs. Virtual instruments, live performance vs. programmed music and composing in a traditional sense vs. “composing for film and TV”.
Composing mentorship: Music spotting for film - Composer Mihkel Zilmer will share his experience from score spotting sessions with directors - be it stories of success or failure. How to read a director? How to find the correct stylistic angle?
Photo by Vivian Avent