Countdown to the Eighth Hollywood Music Workshop in Baden, Austria

Less than a month to go until the eighth annual Hollywood Music Workshop in Baden, Austria! World-renowned composers, orchestrators, arrangers and other audio professionals are going to share their wisdom with their classes. Plus, for the first time this year, there is the added possibility for students to have their compositions recorded by a 29-piece orchestra at the “Synchron Stage Vienna” studio.

This year’s summer academy is going to consist of nine master classes lasting 3 or 6 days each between July 6th and August 11th. Casino Baden, where the classes will be held, is just a 30-minute train ride away from beautiful Vienna, Austria’s capital city. Application is still possible, but of course, quality comes at a price: The fee for a three-day course is €480 ($540), six-day courses cost €960 ($1080). Having your composition recorded costs €1500 ($1690) to €2300 ($2590) per 40 minutes, depending on the instrumentation.

Organized by the much sought-after classical violinist Dimitrie Leivici (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Interpreter, Toy Story) and radio host and former musical producer and singer Lilo Bellotto, this year’s Hollywood Music Workshop includes an impressive line-up of international music and audio professionals. Thomas Chase Jones, composer for some of the biggest animated series and films ever made, is going to teach Music Interval Theory. Conrad Pope, who has worked as an orchestrator on the Harry Potter and The Hobbit franchises, and Grammy winner and 7-time Emmy nominee Nan Schwartz will join forces to teach orchestration and arranging. Joe Kraemer, composer for Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation, is going to walk the attendees through his process of developing an idea into a full composition. Most classes will be heavily interactive and require the students to recreate what they are learning in class. The impressive list of teachers also includes Dennis Sands (scoring mixer, Good Will Hunting, Spider-Man, Forrest Gump, Argo), Lisbeth Scott (vocalist, Iron Man 2, Shrek 2, The Chronicles of Narnia), Chris Walden (conductor and arranger, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, The Smurfs 2) and Edwin Wendler (composer and arranger, Non-Stop, The Nice Guys, X-Men: Apocalypse).

The course descriptions sound very tempting indeed, and some videos on HMW’s Youtube channel provide short glimpses at what to expect. If you’re an aspiring composer, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, sound designer or scoring mixer who can afford it, you probably shouldn’t miss out on this opportunity and apply here.