World premiere Carter Burwell in concert at Film Fest Gent 2018

The American composer is considered one of the most brilliant film composers of his generation, known for his compelling scores including 'Being John Malkovich', 'In Bruges', 'Where The Wild Things Are', 'Twilight' and his unique collaborations with some of the world’s most respected filmmakers such as the Coen Brothers ('Fargo', 'True Grit', 'Miller’s Crossing', 'No Country for Old Men') and Todd Haynes ('Carol', 'Wonderstruck', 'Mildred Pierce', 'Velvet Goldmine'). Earlier this year, the acclaimed American composer received an Academy Award Nomination and Golden Globe nomination for Martin McDonagh’s darkly comedic drama ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’.

Within the framework of the upcoming World Soundtrack Awards, Film Fest Gent will host the very first concert dedicated to Carter Burwell’s film work. Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Dirk Brossé, will perform his original scores accompanied by film clips on the big screen.

Film Fest Gent’s artistic director Patrick Duynslaegher: "We are thrilled to finally welcome Carter Burwell at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, where Mr.Burwell won at least three WSA Awards in 2016. Carter Burwell is of course best known for his remarkable creative and loyal collaboration with Ethan and Joel Coen. It’s as difficult to imagine a Coen Brothers film without Carter Burwell’s music, as a Hitchcock film without the music of Bernard Herrmann or a François Truffaut film without the music of Georges Delerue, to name only two other long-standing director/composer partnerships. His groundbreaking scores for the diverse and innovative films created by the Coen Brothers and his work for many other directors indicate a fierce originality, and a strong feeling for the eccentric, the experimental and the minimalistic. All this makes Carter Burwell a true iconoclast, who is still keeping the freedom and spirit of independent filmmaking."

Dirk Brossé, music director at Film Fest Gent and conductor at the World Soundtrack Awards: “Carter Burwell is one of the most fascinating composers because he always succeeds in coming up with the right sound and the perfect atmosphere for the films he’s working on. Carter composes in various musical styles and disposes a rich palette of both acousitc and electronic colors. I am very much looking forwrard to this edition!”

Colourful career

Carter Burwell’s journey leading up to his career as a successful film composer is rather unusual. Carter studied both animation and electronic music at Harvard College. After graduating, he started to work as a computer scientist, writing software for image processing, lab automation and protein analysis and as a computer modeller and animator, before becoming Director of Digital Sound Research at the New York Institute of Technology.

During the 80’s, Carter pursued a parallel career in music, playing with a number of bands in New York City (The Same, Thick Pigeon, Radiante) and writing music for dance, theatre and film. He has composed the music for more than 80 feature films since the Coen Brothers first hired him to compose the original score for their debut, 'Blood Simple', back in 1984. With their collaboration for at least 15 films, the trio, together with Academy Award winning sound designer Skip Lievsay, has been responsible for carving the sonic architecture of some of the most notable films over the last 30 years such as 'Barton Fink', 'The Hudsucker Proxy', 'The Big Lebowski', 'Fargo', 'No Country For Old Men' and 'Hail, Caesar!'.

Burwell has also scored four of Todd Haynes’ projects, including most recently 'Wonderstruck' and received an Academy nomination for Best Original Score for 'Carol' in 2015 and an Emmy Award for HBO’s mini-series 'Mildred Pierce'. He has also scored all the films of director Martin McDonagh with 'In Bruges', 'Seven Psychopaths' and this year’s multiple award-winning 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'. Some of his other notable film scores include the Spike Jonze’s films 'Being John Malkovich', 'Adaptation' and 'Where the Wild Things Are'; Bill Condon’s 'Gods and Monsters', 'Mr. Holmes', 'The Fifth Estate and The Twilight Saga'; David O. Russell’s 'Three Kings' and 'Anomalisa' directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman.

Carter Burwell is currently writing the original music to the newest Coen Brothers production: the upcoming Netflix film 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'.

Also featuring music from 'Moonlight'

The World Soundtrack Awards will also feature music by Nicholas Britell, Academy Award-nominated composer, pianist and producer. Last year during the World Soundtrack Awards, the American composer won the ‘Discovery of the Year’ award for Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning film 'Moonlight'. In 2015, Britell wrote the score for Adam Mc Kay’s Oscar-nominated film 'The Big Short' and Natalie Portman’s directorial debut feature film 'A Tale of Love and Darkness'.

Britell most recently scored Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s 'Battle of the Sexes'. He is currently working on Adam Mc Kay’s 'Backseat' and Barry Jenkin’s 'If Beale Street Could Talk'.

18th World Soundtrack Awards & Carter Burwell live in concert
17 October 2018 - Capitole, Ghent (Belgium)
Brussels Philharmonic conducted by maestro Dirk Brossé

Buy your ticket(s) here!