Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.
Issue link: http://berkleetoday.epubxp.com/i/67927
Chasing Lassie and Gunsmoke By Peter Gordon Marye Lobb '08 Priya Prins '08 Alf Clausen American Music Institute in Chicago. Saxophonist Alex Terrier of New York City teamed up with French mouth- piece maker Fred Lebayle to create a new model, the AT Mouthpiece. Visit www.lebaylemouthpieces.com. Singer-songwriter Gregorio Uribe of New York City released his debut album, Pluma y Vino. Visit www. gregoriouribe.com. On January 19, Pierce Warnecke of Montagny, France, put out the digital and vinyl EP The Machine Regrets on Fremdtunes. Visit www. piercewarnecke.com. John Wylie of Redondo Beach, CA, wrote and produced all the music for the first season of the series The Super on HDNet. 2008 Saxophonist Diana Leverington of Stockholm, Sweden, performed at the Uppsala Konsert & Kongress hall in January weith the PomPeriPossa Band. The event was aired live on Swedish national television. Visit www.dianaleverington.com. Marye Lobb of New York City released the album Not at War that was produced by Lobb and George Saenz. It features Lobb on vocals and guitar, Saenz on bass and accor- dion, and Marie Kim '09 on cello. Visit www.maryelobb.com. Drummer Zach Miller of Washington, D.C., and his band Gallons to Ounces, won the 2012 Washington, D.C., Hard Rock Cafe Rising Global Battle of the Bands. Visit www.gallonstoounces. com. On January 21, singer/songwriter Justin Nault of Madison, TN, was on the season premiere of Budweiser: The Big Time. He plays regularly at the Big Bang Bar in Nashville. Visit www.justinnault.com. Songwriter, vocalist, and producer Priya Prins of Los Angeles, CA, has been working with rapper Tyga for three years, and worked on his album Careless World: Rise of the Last King. Visit www.priyaprins.com. Wayne Sermon of American Fork, UT, is a member of the band Imagine Dragons that was recently signed to Interscope Records. Other band members include Daniel Platzman '09 (drums) and Ben McKee '09 (bass). 2009 Composer Jee Hyun Kim of Seoul, South Korea, released his ambient electronic music debut EP album and music video under the name Elint. Visit www.elintmusic.com. Guitarist Daniel Miller of Kirkland, WA, teaches guitar, ukulele, vio- lin, piano, percussion, voice, and a rock band ensemble at the Kirkland Children's Music Studio. He is also an active performer. Visit www. danielmiller.org. In February The Simpsons aired its 500th episode, making it the third-longest-running scripted prime-time show in TV history— just behind Lassie and Gunsmoke. The show's longtime composer, Alf Clausen '66, has recorded more than 15,000 cues during the show's 22-year run with one of the most elite studio orchestras in television. Many of the musicians Clausen uses have worked with him for more than 25 years. "They feel like family, and they love coming to work," he says. "They play better in a comfortable situation, and I can take more risks musically with players that I know so well." Clausen draws on the depth of his musical background to cover the variety of styles needed to underscore The Simpsons. "My first gig was at age five, when I sang Norwegian folksongs with my mother playing piano for a local homemakers club," he says. "I began playing French horn in seventh grade and continued with that through high school, where I was also very involved in the choir. I took up acoustic bass in college and that led to my love of big-band music. During my days at Berklee, I gigged as a bass player and also did symphonic and concert band gigs on French horn. I continued all this when I first moved to Los Angeles. With all this experience, handling a wide range of styles comes easy to me." Clausen has the rare good fortune of being responsible for writing the songs featured on The Simpsons as well as the score. "I got lots of experience writing songs for musicals as a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop for two years," he says. "It seems ironic that the 30 Emmy nominations I've received and the two Emmy awards that I've won have all been in the Best Song category." In fact, those 30 nominations give Clausen the highest number of nominations of any musician in the history of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences music branch. Scoring The Simpsons has yield- ed lessons about writing under the gun and supporting humor onscreen with music. "Someone once advised me that you can't 'vaudeville' vaudeville," Clausen says. "If you have a funny scene, it's always more effective to write the music straight." Regarding the pressure of writing to the show's tight schedule, Clausen mus- es, "My experience with variety show choreographers back in the '70s while writing for the Donny & Marie Show taught me to be quick on my feet and adaptable to change. Desperation is the mother of invention!" Winter 2012 Spring 2012 41 Alexandra Meske Jim Hagopian