Famed Hollywood Orchestrator Tim Davies To Give Workshop In Singapore

NEWS RELEASE
Singapore

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has invited renowned Hollywood orchestrator and conductor Tim Davies to conduct a two half-day orchestration workshop next January.

The workshop aims to provide insights into orchestration and arranging, and is suited for composition students and individuals with arranging experience in any genre for a symphony orchestra. Up to six candidates will be selected to work alongside Davies and the SSO to further hone their art of orchestration. This will be Davies’ first such workshop held in Singapore.

At the workshop, participants will work on a piece by Ravel and learn about ‘Hollywood’ orchestrating, using cues from Tim Davies’ Trollhunters score. Each day will also feature an open dialogue session dedicated to a specific topic.

Davies’ film and TV highlights include La La Land, Trolls, Minions, Ant-Man, The Peanuts Movie, The Muppets, Empire, The Lego Movie 2 and Frozen 1 & 2. Davies is also prolific in the world of video games, having worked on multiple titles from the God of War, Infamous, Sims, Resistance and Batman franchises and the recent Marvel Spider-man game.

The Australian conductor has led concerts with symphony orchestras such as Detroit, Baltimore, and San Diego, and the Jalisco Philharmonic of Mexico as well as the Evergreen and National Symphonies of Taiwan.

Workshop Details
Date: 21 and 22 January 2020 (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Time: 2.30pm to 5.30pm
Venue: Victoria Concert Hall

Eligibility
To apply, candidates should be Singapore citizens, Permanent Residents or foreigners studying, working or residing in Singapore. Six candidates will be selected for the workshop.

Submission Details Applicants are invited to send in their application by 10 November 2019, with the following items:

1. Biography including their date of birth, musical background and contact information
2. Orchestration for symphony orchestra of the first nine bars of Le Gibet from Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit using the instrumentation (maximum) as set out below.

• 3 flutes including piccolo
• 3 oboes including English horn
• 3 clarinets including E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet
• 3 bassoons including contrabassoon
• 4 horns
• 3 trumpets
• 3 trombones
• 1 tuba
• 1 timpani
• 3 percussions
• 1 harp
• 1 celeste or piano
• 12 first Violins
• 12 second Violins
• 10 violas
• 8 cellos
• 6 double-basses

Please submit the score in PDF and email all application materials to OrchestrationWorkshop@sso.org.sg

Shortlisted applicants will be notified by 25 November 2019, and will be expected to orchestrate the complete Le Gibet plus a 2-3 minute work from a selection in preparation of the workshop in January 2020.

More details will be available in due course.

About Tim Davies

Tim Davies is one of the most versatile and busiest conductors, orchestrators, and arrangers in Hollywood. His film and TV highlights include La La Land, Trolls, Minions, Ant-Man, The Peanuts Movie, The Muppets, Empire, The Lego Movie 2 and Frozen 1 & 2. He is the most prolific orchestrator and conductor in the world of video games, having worked on multiple titles from the God of War, Infamous, Sims, Resistance and Batman franchises and the recent Marvel Spider-man game. A full list of credits can be found on IMDB.

He is also becoming known in the concert hall, having conducted concerts with such symphony orchestras as Detroit, Baltimore, and San Diego, and abroad with the Jalisco Philharmonic of Mexico, and the Evergreen and National Symphonies of Taiwan.

Davies is an active pop and jazz arranger as well, whose recent highlights include arranging and playing drums for the twentieth anniversary concert of NAS’ Illmatic and being lead arranger for Kendrick Lamar’s performance of To Pimp a Butterfly, both featuring the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Other collaborations with the NSO have included shows with Ledisi, Common and Maxwell. January 2018 saw Davies conduct the NSO for the first time featuring his arrangements for Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds. He has arranged for albums by chart-topping artists Amy Winehouse, Akon, Miguel, and Cee Lo Green. He is enjoys a close relationship with the Metropole Orkest in the Netherlands recently writing for concerts featuring Donny McCaslin and Cory Henry. He plays drums and writes for his own group, the 18-piece Tim Davies Big Band, and has received two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition, in 2010 and 2016.

Davies occasionally composes for the screen as well. He worked with two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla on the score to The Book of Life. This was the beginning of a relationship with Guillermo del Toro, which led to contributing additional music for Crimson Peak and then composing the Annie-nominated score for his TV show, Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, produced by Dreamworks Animation for Netflix.

In 2013 he launched his orchestration blog, www.debreved.com, which has since become an important resource for composers and orchestrators. Davies has given guest lectures all over the world and is currently a visiting artist at the San Francisco Conservatory. He likes to give back and is currently on the board of Education Through Music Los Angeles, helping provide music education for underprivileged children. He is represented by Columbia Artists Management.