Jeff Rona has been composing soundtrack music for TV and movies (among other things) for many years. I always seem to run across his work in way or another from time to time.
I thought I would share this video of Jeff working on a project in his studio with Rob Papen virtual synths as well as some information about his career right after the video. Enjoy!
Jeff Rona Bio
Jeff Rona is an American composer for film. He was a member of Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures. His credits include Sharkwater, Slow Burn and the forthcoming Whisper.
He was born and raised in Culver City, California. He began music with flute in grade school, and by high school had begun experimenting and composing with electronic instruments. He was among the first musicians in the US to compose and create music with computers and digital synthesizers in films and records, before MIDI technology made this an everyday affair. His first pieces were performed internationally at festivals and concert performances.
Jeff Rona
He recorded and performed as a member of Jon Hassell’s highly regarded group, during which he co-composed and produced the acclaimed “City: Works of Fiction” album on Opal/Warner Records. The group toured extensively and performed with legendary producer/composer Brian Eno. More recently he’s begun performing with his own live project “Luxurious”. Because of his deep knowledge of synthesizers and leading edge technology, he was also briefly involved in the design of new electronic instruments and musical software, and was a leading figure in making MIDI a groundbreaking worldwide musical phenomenon.
While a highly in-demand musician on numerous films and records, he landed his first solo composing project, scoring the acclaimed television series “Homicide: Life on the Street” (1993) with director Barry Levinson. Other TV projects followed, including the enormously successful “Chicago Hope” (1994) and “Profiler” (1996).
He worked closely with Steven Spielberg scoring Dreamworks first TV series “High Incident” (1996), Robert Altman on his award winning “Gun” (1997) anthology, Frank Darabont on his Black Cat Run (1998) (TV) film for HBO, and international auteur director Kar Wai Wong’s _Hire: The Follow, The (2001)_ for BMW Films.
Rona’s feature film work includes Ridley Scott’s White Squall (1996) The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Exit Wounds (2001), Mary Lambert’s The In Crowd (2000), contributions to Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic (2000), Schizopolis (1996) and Kafka (1991), Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001), Assassins (1995), The Net (1995), The Fan (1996), Chill Factor (1999) and numerous others.
In addition to the mainstream films, he’s also done several award-winning documentaries, and is currently scoring a number of landmark early silent film’s for an upcoming series of live concerts with picture.
In addition to his album work with Hassell, his music is also on the critically praised world-beat “Transplanet” series on Triloka Records, and the electronica compilation “Leaves From The Tree” on Vitamin Records. His experiences in film music have been published as a major book entitled “The Reel World”, which has a companion web site: http://JeffRona.com
Links To Other Sites About Jeff Rona
The Interview with Field Of Dreams
The Interview with Track Sounds
The Interview With Mel Lambert
An Evening With Jeff Rona (audio)
The Jeff Rona Fan Site In Germany
MFiles, a British soundtrack site
