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Bear
McCreary
Composer / Lyricist
/ Accordionist |
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Award-winning
composer Bear McCreary has emerged as one of the most unique musical voices
on television with his critically acclaimed score to Sci Fi Channel's
smash hit series Battlestar Galactica, starring Academy Award
Nominees Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. In its first two seasons,
this series was hailed by Time, Rolling Stone and Newsday
as "The Best Show on Television," and won the prestigious Peabody
Award. McCreary has also earned his share of acclaim. Kevin Smith's
Quick Stop Entertainment proclaimed "McCreary astounds with his
mastery in connecting the aural to the narrative... this fresh talent could
be the vanguard of the next wave of important American composers. He’s bringing
something new to the field of film composition." E! Online described
his score as "rich, raw, oddly stirring... kick- ass and powerful as
hell." Bear's first soundtrack album, Battlestar Galactica: Season
One, broke into Amazon.com's TOP 100 Music Sales and garnered
rave reviews, including ranking in Visions in Sound's and Cinescape's
"Top 20 Soundtracks of the Year." The following year, tremendous
demand for his Battlestar Galactica: Season Two soundtrack album
rocketed it into Amazon.com's TOP 30 Music Sales on its first day
of release.
Bear is proud to be among the handful of select protégés of
late film music legend Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven,
Far From Heaven). Bear worked with Bernstein for nearly a decade, learning
the tools of the trade along the way. Working from Bernstein's own hand-written
pencil sketches, Bear completely reconstructed and re-orchestrated Bernstein's
1963 score for Kings of the Sun, starring Yul Brynner. Bernstein
himself conducted Bear's Kings concert suite in performances around
the world. Their collaboration allowed for the complete score to be available
as a soundtrack album for the first time in forty years.
Bear recently completed scoring Warner Bros.' feature
Rest Stop, as well as Twentieth Century Fox's Wrong
Turn 2 starring Henry Rollins. He has also scored over thirty
independent films, including the musical When the Kids Are Away.
Showcasing Bear's original songs, lyrics and score, this extraordinary short
received industry-wide applause from top professionals, including Steven
Spielberg. He scored the Discovery Channel miniseries The 5 Coolest
Things starring Matt LeBlanc and has contributed additional music
to Miramax's My Baby's Daddy as well as Fox Searchlight's
sleeper hit Johnson Family Vacation.
Though he is a skilled pianist, Bear's primary instrument is
the accordion. He can be heard on many film soundtracks, including Touchstone
Pictures' The Alamo. As the musical director and vocalist / accordionist
/ keyboardist for The Johnny "Vatos" Tribute to Halloween in October
2005 and 2006, he arranged and conducted over two hours of music for a 16-piece
ensemble featuring Oingo Boingo alums Steve Bartek, John Avila, Johnny
"Vatos" Hernandez and Sam "Sluggo" Phipps. His unique combination of atypical
instrumental background with rigorous classical training (degrees in Composition
as well as Recording Arts from the prestigious USC Thornton School of
Music) puts him equally at home writing for quirky, off-kilter ensembles,
symphonic orchestras - and often both at once.
An active composer for the concert hall as well, Bear remains
the only student in USC's history to have two works performed in concert
by the USC Symphony during an undergraduate career. His concert works have
received recognition from The ASCAP / Morton Gould Young Composers Award
and in the summer of 2003, he was one of only six composers selected for
the first ASCAP Electronic Scoring Workshop. He is represented by
Soundtrack Music Associates.
His turn-ons include science fiction movies and classic rock.
Visual
Music Bio
