Jeff Rona
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INTRODUCING JEFF RONA
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Jeff Rona is a contemporary film composer and recording artist. The youngest son of European immigrants, he studied music, art and photography, but left school behind to pursue music as his life’s work. Early on he composed for dance, theater, experimental media, galleries and contemporary concert venues around the world using both traditional musicians and cutting-edge technologies. He became an in-demand studio musician, arranger, sound designer, synthesist and music programmer in Los Angeles & New York, most notably with Philip Glass on several film and live projects and with film composer Hans Zimmer. He worked as a musical collaborator on numerous films & records before landing his first solo composing project, scoring the groundbreaking television series Homicide:Life On The Street for director Barry Levinson.
Since then he has scored dozens of other films and television projects with directors such as Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Wong Kar-wai, Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh, Mark Pellington, Stephen Hopkins, Jonathan Demme, Frank Darabont and many others. His projects have received awards including Oscar, Peabody & Emmy awards, and countless film festival awards around the world. He is a two time recipient of the ASCAP film and television music award. He composed for the 2008 Beijing Olymic games and toured the original orchestral works throughout China. Among his album projects, he recorded and performed as a member of Jon Hassell’s highly regarded group. He co-composed and produced the acclaimed City-Works Of Fiction record for Opal Records/Rykodisc which toured and performed with legendary producer Brian Eno. Jeff was a guest remix artist on KCRW’s remix album for Ozomatli. He has performed with the Eastern fusion ensemble Axiom Of Choice, and appears on their Narada records. In addition to his album work with Hassell, his music is also on the critically praised world-beat Transplanet series on Triloka Records. This includes the electronica compilation Leaves From The Tree, and Elysium For the Brave, the newest featuring Persian singer Azam Ali. He has a number of soundtracks available through iTunes.
Prior to becoming an established composer, he was closely involved in a number of creative & technical aspects of electronic music. Jeff was a key figure in the development of musical software and new instrument design, and was a leader in making MIDI a groundbreaking world-wide phenomenon. He was a guest speaker on technology and creativity at the first TED Conference. Jeff chronicled his experiences in the film music world in his popular book The Reel World. He is an artist-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival, and often speaks on film music.