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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

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Hyperventilations

for Piano with Four Hands [cat. sc26]

Hyperventilations of a Fire Dragon harnesses music from my early career as a performer in latin bands, jazz ensembles, funk bands, and rock and metal bands. The underlying fervency of these influences is felt throughout the work, leveraged by the power and agility of the piano, driving the performance often to the edge of playability. This piece initiates a compositional renaissance, a drilling down into the musical cores of “fire” that constitute the music of my youth. It comes from the gut—quite literally, was breathed into life. The melodic and rhythmic motives are all derived from vocal inflections (and hyperventilations) improvised, recorded, transcribed and re-composed by the composer.

DREW SCHNURR (2015)

Premiered by Vicki Ray and Aaron Kallay — Hear Now Festival, Los Angeles, May 2015.
Video performance by pianists Kookhee Hong and Minji Noh.

watch HYPERVENTILATIONS

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Hear Now Music Festival

05/04/15

Drew Schnurr’s Hyperventilations of a Fire Dragon premieres at Hear Now festival in Los Angeles with pianists Vicki Ray and Aaron Kallay.

hearnowmusicfestival.com

Circumsolar 3

09/30/14

CircumSolar, Migration 3, 2013. Single channel video by Rebeca Mendez projected at architectural scale, color, sound by Drew Schnurr. REALSPACE, Williamson Gallery, Pasadena, California, October 3, 2014–January 18, 2015.

video @ rebecamendez.com

Chamber Music Festival of Lexington

05/21/14

Feature performance of “Of Mother and Daughter” at the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington with Karen Slack (soprano), Nathan Cole (violin), and Allegra Lilly (harp).

chambermusiclex.com

Four String Gambits Recording

02/12/14

Four String Gambits for string quartet recorded at Allegro Recordings in Burbank, January 27, 2013.

CircumSolar, Migration 3

01/17/14

CircumSolar, Migration 3 with video by Rebeca Mendez at Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, January 9-26, 2014.

Of Mother and Daughter Recording Session

08/23/13

Of Mother and Daughter for soprano, violin, and harp recording session at Robert Irving’s studio in Los Angeles, August 13, 2013.

Guillaume Sutre (and his daughter), Drew Schnurr, Kyunghee Kim-Sutre, Jamie Chamberlin, and Richard Sparks.

7 AGES PREMIERE

04/18/13

7 AGES: Of Mother and Daughter premieres at Providence New Music Premieres in Providence, RI.

Performers:
Soprano – Blithe Walker
Violin – Alexey Shabalin
Harp – Hyunjung Choi

Program notes:

This collaboration with Richard Sparks comes to fruition just weeks before another life begins, that is the life of my first born child. I cannot help but wonder how this pending event worked in my subconscious while setting Richard’s text to music. However it may be, the music came, and in the best way for a composer where it feels like the ideas and words speak the music unto themselves. I’m so grateful to Richard for his artistry in creating such a beautiful text.

The important women in my life: my wife, my mother, step-mother, mothers-in law, and grandmothers all speak through this music which is dedicated them in honor of who they are as mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and all women of heart and substance. My love and gratitude goes to them as their influence undeniably resonates in this work.

DREW SCHNURR (2013)

PAUL CHIHARA INERVIEW: PART 4

06/20/12

Paul Chihara has had a long and distinguished career as a composer for film and concert stage. He is currently a Professor of Composition in the UCLA School of Music and Chair of the Visual Media Program. In this video interview I sit down with him to learn more about his life, garnish some advice, and to get his ideas about music in the 21st century. Recorded at UCLA on November 11, 2010.

watch part 1
watch part 2
watch part 3

REVIEW: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

05/30/12

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) written and directed by Steven Spielberg is a classic film about first contact with a visiting alien race. The main character in the film, Roy Neary (played by Richard Dreyfuss), is an electrical line worker who after an alien encounter becomes obsessed with a series of mentally imprinted images and sounds. These images and sounds help guide him and other individuals to a secret location where a large delegation extraterrestrials will dramatically encounter the human race for the first time. First contact!

Music and sound play a very important role in the film. The music score is by the great John Williams. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was Williams’ second film with Spielberg (the first being Jaws in 1975), and became among the first of many collaborations between the composer and director. After their very successful creative collaboration on Jaws, Spielberg and Williams worked closely on the early creative development of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, during it’s conception. Elements of the music score were developed at the same time as the script and specifically integrated into the film’s structure, making them active story levers in the plot line.