Howard Shore, Murray Gold, Bear McCreary @ Córdoba (2025)

Special Guests To Include Howard Shore, Kenji Kawai, David Shire

Honorary President Murray Gold

And Third Elmer Bernstein Award Recipient Bear McCreary

(June 4, 2015 – Córdoba, Spain) The International Film Music Festival of the Province of Córdoba is proud to announce the lineup for their 11th edition, to be held from July 19 to 26 in Córdoba, Spain.

Legendary composer Howard Shore will be special guest of the festival, which will feature two nights of Shore’s music, one featuring music from THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy and one which will be more of a career retrospective, featuring music from Shore’s long-standing collaborations with directors Martin Scorsese and David Cronenberg.“

Over 10 years ago, one of the best film music composers in history, allowed us to greet him at the door of his dressing room after a LORD OF THE RINGS concert in Seville. Maestro Howard Shore created then the germ of our Festival,” said festival founder David Doncel. “The fact that Maestro Howard Shore leads our guest roster this year, only makes it clear that the Festival has achieved its goal. That of being not only one of the most important festivals in the film music scene and create a special atmosphere in which fans, composers and organizers are involved as a single family. We are proud to have in attendance an outstanding composer whose legacy is timeless and that is already part of the global collective mythology.”

Elmer Bernstein protégé and EMMY® Award-winning composer Bear McCreary (OUTLANDER, THE WALKING DEAD, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) will receive the third annual Elmer Bernstein Award. The festival will feature two nights of music from McCreary, both at one of the orchestral concerts and a chamber concert on Sunday night. The Calder Quartet, who perform for many of McCreary’s compositions will join Bear performing the music from his repertoire, including MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., THE WALKING DEAD, DA VINCI’S DEMONS, BLACK SAILS and OUTLANDER.

In conjunction with the Berklee College of Music, Valencia, The International Film Music Festival of the Province of Córdoba will be creating a new award, named after Howard Shore to recognize the contributions of an up-and-coming Berklee alumnus.

Also being celebrated this year are composers David Shire and Kenji Kawai. David Shire, an Academy Award and two-time Grammy winner and multiple Tony and Emmy nominee, has composed prolifically for the theatre, films, television and recordings. His credits include NORMA RAE, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3, RETURN TO OZ, and ZODIAC. Kenji Kawai (?? ?? Kawai Kenji) is known for his work on UMECHAN SENSEI (2012), IP MAN (2008) and GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995)

Murray Gold (DOCTOR WHO) was previously named the Honorary President for the 11th Edition.

“I am especially proud and honored to be able to share music and life experiences with geniuses such as Bear McCreary, Murray Gold or Maestros like David Shire, giant Asian sound creators as Kenji Kawai or living legends as Maestro Howard Shore,” said Doncel. “No doubt this is one of our most outstanding years in terms of guest line-up. I want to thank all who made this possible.”

For more information contact:

Spain:

rensa@filmmusicfestival.org">prensa@filmmusicfestival.org

US/UK: Krakower Poling PR, krakowerpolingpr@gmail.com or @KrakowerPoling on Twitter

HOWARD SHORE

Howard Shore is one of today’s premier composers whose music is performed in concert halls around the world by the most prestigious orchestras and is heard in cinemas across the globe.

Shore’s musical interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginative world of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as portrayed in the films directed by Peter Jackson, have enthralled people of all generations for years. This work stands as his most acclaimed composition to date awarding him with three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes as well as numerous critic’s and festival awards.

He is an Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France and has also been recognized by Canada with the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures honored Howard Shore with an award for Career Achievement for Music Composition and the City of Vienna bestowed him with the Max Steiner Award. Shore has received numerous other awards for his career achievements.

Perhaps most notable from his early career, Shore was one of the creators of Saturday Night Live and served as musical director from 1975- 1980. At the same time he began collaborating with David Cronenberg and has since scored 15 of the director’s films, including The Fly, Crash, and Naked Lunch. He was awarded Canadian Screen Awards for Maps to the Stars for score and Cosmopolis for both score and song. His original scores to A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises and Dead Ringers were each honoured with a Genie Award. Shore continues to distinguish himself with a wide range of projects, from Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, The Departed, The Aviator (for which he won his third Golden Globe Award) and Gangs of New York to Ed Wood, Se7en, The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Mrs. Doubtfire.

Other recent works include the piano concerto Ruin and Memory for Lang Lang (2010), the song cycle A Palace Upon the Ruins featuring mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano (2014), a cello concerto Mythic Gardens (2012), and Fanfare for the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia (2008).His opera, The Fly (2008), which premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and at Los Angeles Opera, recently completed a successful run in Germany at the Theatre Trier.

BEAR MCCREARY

It’s because of his out-of-the-box thinking that led WIRED Magazine to call Bear McCreary a “Secret Weapon.” His unique combination of atypical instrumental background (he is a professional accordionist) with rigorous classical training prepared him to compose for disparate genres. By the age of 24, McCreary was launched into pop culture history with his groundbreaking score to Syfy’s hit series Battlestar Galactica, for which he composed “the most innovative music on TV today” (Variety). It “fits the action so perfectly, it’s almost devastating: a sci-fi score like no other” (NPR). Io9.com declared Bear McCreary one of the Ten Best Science Fiction Composers of all time, listing him alongside legends John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann. In addition to earning his first Emmy® Award in 2013, McCreary was voted “Composers’ Choice Composer of the Year – Television” for 2013 by his peers in ASCAP, the first award of its kind.

An Emmy® Award winner for Da Vinci’s Demons, McCreary also composes for The Walking Dead (which shattered records with 17.3 million viewers for its fifth season debut), STARZ’s debut series Outlander (for Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore who he previously worked with on Battlestar Galactica), Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—the #1 series debut of the 2013 fall season, NBC’s Constantine for David S. Goyer (Da Vinci’s Demons), BBC America’s Intruders, the Syfy series Defiance, and the feature films Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie and Everly.

DAVID SHIRE

David Shire, an Academy Award® and two-time Grammy® winner and multiple Tony® and EMMY® nominee, has composed prolifically for the theatre, films, television and recordings. On Broadway, he and lyricist Richard Maltby wrote the scores for the musicals BABY (Tony nominations for Best Score and Musical) and BIG (Tony nomination for Best Score).

Shire’s many feature film scores include NORMA RAE (Academy Award for Best Song, lyrics by Norman Gimbel), Francis Coppola’s THE CONVERSATION, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1-2-3, SHORT CIRCUIT, 2010, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, THE HINDENBERG, RETURN TO OZ and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, for which his work earned him two Grammy Awards. He most recently scored David Fincher’s ZODIAC and Peter Hyams’ BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT. His numerous television scores have garnered five Emmy nominations and include Glenn Close’s SARAH PLAIN AND TALL, Christopher Reeve’s REAR WINDOW, RAID ON ENTEBBE, Oprah Winfrey’s THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE, THE KENNEDYS OF MASSACHUSETTS, Wendy Wasserstein’s THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, and Neil Simon’s JAKE’S WOMEN and BROADWAY BOUND. He also composed the theme song, with lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, for the long-running Linda Lavin NBC series ALICE. Shire and his wife, actress Didi Conn, have completed the pilot for DIDI LIGHTFUL, a new animated musical television series that they co-created and co-produced.

MURRAY GOLD

Five-time BAFTA nominee Murray Gold has been the composer of DOCTOR WHO since its 2005 re-launch. One of the most inspired and uncompromising composers in his field, Gold composes for theatre, film, and television.

In addition to his two BAFTA nominations for DOCTOR WHO, Gold earned BAFTA nominations for VANITY FAIR, the RTS Award-winning soundtrack QUEER AS FOLK, and CASANOVA. His UK credits include some of the most innovative programs on television including THE SECOND COMING (starring Christopher Ecclestone), SERVANTS, and Channel Four’s controversial drama series SHAMELESS, and THE MUSKETEERS. His film credits include BAFTA winning-KISS OF LIFE, and Frank Oz’s DEATH AT A FUNERAL.

KENJI KAWAI

Kenji Kawai (?? ?? Kawai Kenji), born April 23, 1957 in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is a Japanese music composer for motion pictures, anime movies, video games and televised programs. He has contributed to the musical scores for numerous films from Japan and other countries in Asia, working in film genres as diverse as anime, horror, sci-fi and historical epic. Among his credits are Tsui Hark’s Seven Swords and Wilson Yip's IP MAN; Mamoru Oshii’s films THE RED SPECTACLES, STRAYDOG: KERBEROS PANZER COPS, GHOST IN THE SHELL, MOBILE POLICE PATLABOR and AVALON; the anime adaptations of Rumiko Takahashi's RANMA ½ and MAISON IKKOKU; the live-action adaptation of GANTZ; and Hideo Nakata's films RING, RING 2, CHAOS, DARK WATER and KAIDAN. His soundtrack for THE SKY CRAWLERS earned Best Original Soundtrack in the 2008 International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia.