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Article Key
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Research
Staff
Concert
Alumni
Concerts: February 2010
This month's listings:
5th: Schütz, Bach and their choral legacy
12th: Strings Plus
13th: The Sixteen
19th: Danford, Rose & Garthwaite
21st: Clara Mouriz & Joseph Middleton
26th: Strings Plus
28th: Leeds Baroque Choir & Orchestra
Alumni
Each month we'll feature a School of Music alumni and see where they're at career, performance or otherwise!
This month we're focussing on Ilan Eshkeri (BA Music and English, 1999).
Ilan recently returned to the school as keynote speaker at the school's Film Music Conference. Professor David Cooper, Dean of the Faculty of PVAC, took the opportunity to interview Ilan as part of the conference's opening address.
Ilan works as a composer and orchestrator in the film industry..
Click to read Ilan's story..
Ilan is a British film composer who has established himself as an exciting young talent in the world of film music. Born in London into a musical family, Ilan grew up playing violin and later took up playing guitar in bands. He studied Music and English literature at Leeds University, during which time he also worked with film composer Ed Shearmur learning first-hand the technique of film composition. After graduating, he went on to work with other film composers such as Michael Kamen and Hans Zimmer. At this time Ilan began scoring his own projects, and his talent for creating cinematic music on a limited budget soon gained him recognition within the film industry.
When Kamen passed away in 2001, Ilan played a major role in completing the final score for the feature animation 'Back to Gaya'. As a result, Ilan was asked to score 'Layer Cake' directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring Daniel Craig, which became a box office hit and got Ilan a nomination for 'Discovery of the Year' at the world soundtrack awards. This marked the beginning of Ilan's working relationship with Vaughn, and in 2007, Ilan composed his award-winning score for 'Stardust', starring Robert De Niro, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Their collaboration continues in 2009 with the adaptation of the 'Kick Ass' comic series.
Other scores include 'Hannibal Rising' directed by Peter Webber and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and most recently the score for 'The Young Victoria', Jean-Marc Vallee's stunning dramatisation about Queen Victoria's early reign, starring Emily Blunt. Earlier in the year Ilan scored Nick Moran's directorial debut, the darkly comic Joe Meek biopic 'Telstar', starring Con O'Neil and Kevin Spacey. Ilan is currently working with Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers scoring 'Ninja Assassin' directed by James McTiegue.
Ilan has also collaborated with various songwriters; he worked with Annie Lennox re-arranging some of her best known songs to critical acclaim, such as 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Here Comes the Rain Again' for orchestra and band. He has been on tour supporting David Gilmour and programmed strings on Gilmour's hit solo album 'On An Island.' Ilan also co-wrote the international hit single 'Rule The World' with Take That.
Ilan's style demonstrates his love of orchestral music and classic film scores as well as contemporary music; his music prioritises authenticity, utilising real instruments and the integrity of live performance. Working with real musicians, whether acoustic or electronic is at the core of Ilan's philosophy and he holds close affiliations with many outstanding musicians, working in partnership with them during the creative process. In his view, if music is the soul of a movie then capturing an emotional performance is key to its success.
http://ilaneshkeri.com
Got a story?
If you're an alumni, current student, concert series performer (past or present) and you'd like to share some news or tell us about an event then we'd love to hear from you.
Drop us a line at:
musicnews@leeds.ac.uk
Personal tutors recognised by Student Union awards
The efforts of two personal tutors in the School of Music were recognised in the Leeds University Student Union ‘I Love My Personal Tutor’ awards for 2009.
Allan Greenwood (pictured above), course coordinator for the Popular and World Musics BA, was given a prize for his outstanding input to the experience of his personal tutees. Simon Warner, who teaches principally on the same BA, also received a nomination from his tutees. 
Leading composer forges links with University
A major British composer has been appointed as Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds as part of a partnership created with the Leeds-based company Opera North.
Dr David Sawer, whose work Skin Deep, an operatic production devised with the comedy producer and satirist Armando Iannucci, was premiered by Opera North earlier in 2009, will visit the University to work with students and staff.
Gang of Four return to campus for new wave seminar
Three members of seminal rock band Gang of Four, formed at Leeds University in 1977, returned to the campus on June 26th, 2009, when a seminar on new wave and post-punk attracted a capacity audience.
The event, ‘New Wave, New Views: Re-visiting the Post-Punk moment’, was co-organised by Simon Warner of the Music School and Aaron Meskin from the Philosophy department.
Current Headlines : November 2009
