Drew Schnurr

Drew Schnurr is a composer, sound artist, and performer from Los Angeles whose work blurs traditional lines in music, media, and sound.

As a composer for media, Drew has produced music and sonic branding for numerous world brands and media conglomerates. He is also an active concert composer and sound artist with a diverse range of international commissions and exhibits.

Revered by his peers, industry professionals, and critics, his work has been called both “rare” and “remarkable.”

“This composer bends and stretches rules within his own aesthetic, weaving his musical ideas in harmonious waves that threaten to drown, yet gently tumble the listener forward with intrigue and anticipation.” -Adam Rosenthal review for Persee: Orchestrated Perception

VISUAL MEDIA PORTFOLIO
CONCERT PORTFOLIO
BIO

Linda’s Wake

for Voice, Oboe, Harpsichord, Double Bass, Percussion  [cat. sc25]

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Setting of a beautiful and haunting text written by my friend Richards Sparks, librettist and director for the Los Angeles Opera. Unabashedly programatic, the piece is a musical portrait illuminating the heart and mind of a woman attending the wake of a best friend lost to cancer. It is a tribute of love—the kind only known between friends dear since childhood—expressed in the telling of their story. Constructed intersections of time, memory, and emotion are underpinned by interludes within musical worlds where our subject reflects and remembers, processing her loss, singing of her experience as she feels her way through. And she is not alone. The ghost of the deceased, Linda, embodied in the voice of the oboe, serenades and accompanies her—in the end, fading into light and memory.

The instrumental parameters for this commission by the London Riot Ensemble, inspired by Dutilleux’s Les Citations, are unique in their combination. Though, a strong connection exists for me—because I am also a double bassist—between the bass and harpsichord. This is rooted in the tradition of basso continuo (”continuous bass”) by important baroque composers such as Bach. The use of harpsichord and bass in Linda’s Wake afforded me the opportunity to intuitively and compositionally explore this aspect of my own musical DNA, not using continuo traditionally—in the support of harmonic progression—but rather to develop and expand repeated strata of continuo lines throughout the entire ensemble at varied register, speed, and complexity. These layers become composites that underly and support the voice and narrative.

DREW SCHNURR
(May 2014)

Recording released in 2015 on Coviello Contemporary, Germany.

Confessions Distribution

Breaking Glass Pictures acquires world rights to Eco-Terrorist: The Battle for our Planet by Peter Jay Brown with music by Drew Schnurr—a follow-up to the 2010 feature documentary Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist.

deadline.com | announcement

Ascent of Weavers at MACO

Ascent of Weavers, a visual-music film by Rebeca Méndez in collaboration with Drew Schnurr at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Exhibits from November 30, 2018 to May 17, 2019.

info @ rebecamendezstudio.com/Ascent-of-Weavers

#ARCH1 Prototype

A virtual architecture by Drew Schnurr, the #ARCH1 (Augmented Reality Concert Hall no.1) prototype was completed on May 15, 2019. Research assistants and producers on the project include Rachel Lanik Whelan and Jacob Thede with programming by Ian Afflerbach.

Assistant Professor of Composition at University of North Texas

Churchill’s War Premiere

West Coast premiere of Drew Schnurr’s Churchill’s War for orchestra. Performed by OCOC conducted by David Rentz.

Anaheim, CA, April 2, 2017.

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ASCENT OF WEAVERS at LALIFF
Friday, August 4th, 2017

Ascent of Weavers, a film by Rebeca Méndez with music by Drew Schnurr, featured at the 2019 Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

info @ latinofilm.org/ascent-of-weavers

trailer and credits @ rebecamendezstudio.com

poster

48 HOUR FILM PROJECT
Wednesday, July 31st, 2019

Judging films submitted for the 48 Hour Film Project in Dallas. Screenings on July 31 and August 1.

48hourfilm.com/dallas
filmindallas.org

DREW@SCHNURR.COM 323.243.7653