RYAN WHITTIER

I’m currently creating and compiling a small collection of short solo piano works.  Some are brand new, and some are from recent years.  The moods of the pieces are generally nostalgic and wistful – some with a touch of mystery - and each of the compositions for this collection has a quality that makes it particularly effective as film score… a few of the pieces have already appeared as such.  I plan to release a recording of the pieces in 2013.

I had the pleasure of providing the music score for this Great Gifts from Crayola commercial.  For the music, I provided an adaptation of my Miracle On 22nd Street theme reprise, and created an instrumental end tag of ‘partridge in a pear tree’ to match the rest of Crayola’s holiday commercial campaign.  It was lots of fun to do, and I love the way the commercial turned out.

I’m grateful to have been awarded another ASCAP Plus consideration for my film scoring work.

Ken Burns: On Story from Redglass Pictures on Vimeo.

The brand new short documentary film “Ken Burns: On Story“, which I scored for Redglass Pictures, made its web debut on The Atlantic.  The film features the legendary Ken Burns discussing what he finds most compelling about the art of storytelling.  I was honored to compose and perform the music for it.

I am honored to be the recipient of a 2011-2012 ASCAPLUS award. This award “recognizes your creative contributions to American music this past year”.

I recently finished the original music for Redglass Pictures’ brand new short film about “millenials” for Mercer (a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies).  It was a fun and challenging project for me, since the soundtrack needed elements of indie, folk, and good old fashioned rock’n'roll; it gave me the opportunity to feature guitars and a vocal cameo, which I hadn’t done on a soundtrack since 2005.

The AFI | Discovery Channel SilverDocs Documentary Festival has selected Miracle On 22nd Street to be one of the short films featured and screened at the 2011 festival.  I’m thrilled by the accolades this film is receiving, and had a great time composing and recording the music for it.

Here’s a link to the short documentary film ‘Miracle on 22nd Street’, as featured on The New York Times home page on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, 2010:

Miracle on 22nd St from Redglass Pictures on Vimeo. I composed and recorded all the music in the week leading up to the debut of this true story of a genuine Christmas mystery by Sarah Klein and Tom Mason of Redglass Pictures.  I’m honored that Vimeo creator Blake Whitman gave a personal shout-out to the documentary, as well as to the music in its own right.

I composed, performed, and recorded the music for 14 short films at the National Museum of American Jewish History’s Only In America Hall of Fame exhibit in Philadelphia.  The museum’s grand opening to the public was November 26, 2010, and the Only In America biographical films are located on the museum’s first floor. The permanent exhibit was conceived and produced by Local Projects, the films were directed, shot, and edited by Redglass Pictures,  biographies include Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Louis Brandeis, Albert Einstein, Mordecai Kaplan, Sandy Koufax, Esteé Lauder, Emma Lazarus, Isaac Leeser, Golda Meir, Jonas Salk, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Rose Schneiderman, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, Henrietta Szold, and Isaac Mayer Wise.

Learn more about the National Museum of American Jewish History here: http://nmajh.org/