School of Music

Leeds PhDs attend New York film music conference

The annual Manhattan movie event provides a platform for scholars from around the world

Two of the department's doctoral students have recently attended a major film music conference in New York City.

Ian Sapiro and Dave Ireland (pictured) took part in a conference entitled 'Music and the Moving Image V', one of the largest annual film music gatherings of its kind.

Held at the Steindhart campus of New York University in May, the conference attracted a wide range of scholars and students alongside some practitioners.

Says Dave: 'This year there was a focus on the growing area of studying music in video games. The two keynote speakers were composer Tom Salta, whose games scores include Prince of Persia: The forgotten sands and Karen Collins, editor of the book From Pac-Man to Pop Music.'

Ian Sapiro offered a paper was titled 'Your Job is not to reinvent; your job is to make into three dimensions what is already there' and discussed the roles of composer and orchestrator in current UK film scoring, drawing upon his interview work with film practitioners.

Dave Ireland's contribution was titled 'Identifying Incongruence: Re-examining the film soundtrack' and looked at exactly what incongruent film music is, the way in which it may influence our perception and emotional response to film and the value of studying this academically.

Both PhD students generously supported with financial assistance from the School of Music's Postgraduate Research Funding and an SMI Student grant from the RMA.

Adds Dave: 'The conference was really interesting. There was a wide variety of topics presented and really friendly people to meet.'

 

Date Published: 01 November 2010
Keywords: Dave Ireland, Ian Sapiro, New York film conference