Composers

CHANDA DANCY

MANDY HOFFMAN

JAY WEIGEL

MODERATED BY ERIC V. HACHIKIAN

(Composer, SCL NY Steering Committee Member)

YouTube Live Stream Q&A 

TUESDAY, MARCH 14

1:00-2:30pm PT / 3:00-4:30pm CT / 4:00-5:30pm ET

Working with live musicians is a rewarding process and can help elevate your score to levels simply not achievable “in-the-box”. However, incorporating a live ensemble comes with its own logistical, technical, and budgetary challenges.

Join us as we discuss the ins and outs of both approaches with our fantastic panel. They represent a wide range of musical backgrounds and experience recording live ensembles of all sizes, as well as achieving “state of the art” mixes completely in-the-box. We’ll cover topics such as: How to work within a budget. Recording remote vs. in-person. Tips on successfully mixing a hybrid score. We’ll also take audience questions through our live YouTube stream.

Chanda Dancy started composing orchestral works at the age of 12. She has been described as a “phenomenal composer” and “quickly gaining recognition as a foremost black American contemporary composer.” Her works are described as “emotionally penetrating” and “rich”.

An alumnus of the USC Film Scoring Program, and the Sundance Composers Lab, Chanda is both an accomplished film and television composer with over 18 years of experience and an emerging classical concert composer. Arts Boston named her one of “10 Contemporary Black Composers You Should Know”. She is known for her work on the Sundance award-winning documentary Aftershock (Disney/Onyx Collective), the hit Netflix TV Original The Defeated starring Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), and the recent Korean War era epic Devotion starring Jonathan Majors (Da 5 Bloods, Loki) and Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick).

Mandy Hoffman found her musical niche in composing to picture, guided by her passion of storytelling and visual art. She is known for her broad stylistic range, unique voice, and thoughtfully nuanced scores that strongly support both story and vision. Her work on films, series, documentaries, commercials, and art installations have appeared in theaters, on networks, at top film festivals, and prestigious art galleries all over the world. Recently, concert music was added to her repertoire, with live orchestral events held at Lincoln Center in New York and The Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles.

Her scores for The Lovers (A24) and Hala (Overbrook/Apple TV+) received ample praise from top film critics. Her music appears on countless TV shows, including underscoring Joey Soloway’s I Love Dick (Amazon), Doll & Em (HBO), and the Anna Kendrick-led Dummy (Roku). The psychological feature thriller Shapeless premiered at The TriBeCa Fest 2021.

Hoffman is an active member of the music and filmmaking communities, often sitting on panels and leading workshops. She is an adjunct professor at NYU’s Screen Scoring program, and she guest lectures at The New School, Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, and Sound Thinking. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is a board member of the Alliance for Women Film Composers. She currently resides in New York City.

Jay Weigel is a distinguished composer, producer, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, and contractor for film, television, recordings, and concerts. He currently serves as the Chair of the Nashville Chapter of the Society of Composers & Lyricists. Based in New Orleans and Nashville, he has worked in the film and television industry since 1984.

His recent scores and soundtrack recordings can be heard in studio projects produced by Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Universal, Netflix, Tyler Perry Studios, HBO, and numerous documentaries and independent films such as: The Campaign, Green Lantern, Grudge Match, Get Hard, Midnight Special, Tall Girl, The Hammer, The Eagle and the Albatross, A Fall From Grace, Caged No More, Camp Cool Kids, The Oval, For Colored Girls, Too Close To Home, The Last Laugh, Paradise Lost, The Highwaymen, and NCIS New Orleans.

He has worked as an orchestrator, conductor, contractor, and/or score preparer for composers such as George S. Clinton, Christopher Young, David Wingo, John Swihart, Christopher Lennertz and Terence Blanchard. He is currently arranging the works of Big Freedia and the Lost Bayou Ramblers for concerts with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. This follows up on past successes with he has worked with PJ Morton, Andra Day, REM, Tank, and the Bangas, Jon Cleary, Chris Thomas King, Juvenile, Keala Settle, and Judith Owen.

Eric V. Hachikian is an Armenian-American composer whose music has been hailed by The New York Times as “lovely and original.” A classically trained musician and perpetual researcher of world music, his personal sound draws inspiration from diverse influences and artists, and thrives in audiovisual collaboration.

His work ranges from can be heard in a variety of major motion pictures, network television shows, and indie favorites: Mortal Kombat Legends, Marco Polo, How High 2, When We First Met, The Place Beyond the Pines, The Wrestler, Ozark, Superstore, Homeland, and Entourage. As Creative Director and co-founder of Soundcat Productions, a boutique music collective with studios in New York City and Los Angeles, Eric has written and produced music for numerous brands and advertising campaigns: Apple, Google, Facebook, Budweiser, BMW, Snickers, Ford, Mastercard, Kate Spade, and Wendy’s, among many others. His concert works include “Voyage to Amasia”, a personal reflection on his Armenian heritage, later developed into a feature documentary, and his music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Pops Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, and Boston Pops Orchestra, and in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and The Getty. He most recently scored the AppleTV documentary Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker with longtime collaborator Peter Nashel. The film premiered at Berlinale this past February, and is directed by Alex Gibney.

Eric studied Nadia Boulanger’s methods in Paris, France, composition and audio engineering at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals, received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan, and his Master of Arts from New York University. Also a performer, Eric plays the piano and tuba, is a trained vocalist, and an accomplished conductor. He currently teaches composition, media scoring, and orchestration at New York University’s Steinhardt School and Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, and has led learning labs in Armenia at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies. Eric also proudly serves on the New York Steering Committee of the Society of Composers & Lyricists.

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