John Kaefer
Born (1976-10-01) October 1, 1976
GenresFilm scores, concert music, multimedia
Occupation(s)Composer
Years active2006-present
Websitehttps://www.johnkaefer.com

John Kaefer (born October 1, 1976) is a composer for film, television, and the concert stage.

Education

Kaefer is a doctoral graduate of The Juilliard School and also earned degrees in composition from Yale University (MM)[1] and the Eastman School of Music (BM).[2][3]

Career

Kaefer began his professional television music career during his time at The Juilliard School, where he composed the music for the TV mini-series Dance School: Juilliard. He then went on to compose the scores for several short films, including To Kill A Bore (2006) and They Say It’s Wonderful (2006), and In Pursuit of Woody Allen (2007). In 2007, he provided additional music for another short, Room Service, as well as for his first feature film, Mama’s Boy. He also began working on ABC’s Good Morning America, co-composing the theme music and the rest of the score until 2012. Kaefer also co-composed the music for Good Morning America Weekend Edition.[4]

In 2009, Kaefer composed for another short film, Forget Me Not, and contributed the theme music for Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff. That year, he also composed the thematic music package for ABC’s hour-long news magazine, 20/20.[5]

In 2010, Kaefer composed his second full-length film score for the crime-drama The Rise and Fall of Their American Dream and for another short, Lily of the Feast. He was credited as music programmer and orchestrator for the film One Fall in 2011. In 2012, Kaefer composed for another short, Pandora’s Box, and ended his time with Good Morning America and Good Morning America Weekend Edition.[6]

In 2013, Kaefer provided the theme music for Primetime: Would You Fall for That?. He also scored his first documentary, A Polite Bribe.[7] In 2014, Kaefer worked on the series, Sequestered, the first season of which aired on the Crackle network.[8] He composed the music for his second documentary by Robert Orlando, Silence Patton, the following year in 2015.[7]

Kaefer worked on the score for the live-action sequences of Quantum Break, a third-person shooter action game released for the Xbox One on April 5, 2016.[4] He composed the music for the Fullscreen series, Making Moves, which will be released on April 26, 2016, and he also composed the theme music for The Kidnapping of a Fish, a short set to release later in 2016.

Concert Music

As a composer for the concert stage, Kaefer's music has been programmed by The Pacific Symphony, Eighth Blackbird, the Aspen Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble, The Juilliard Orchestra, Symphony In C (Haddonfield Symphony),[9] The New York Youth Symphony,[10] the Chamber Symphony of New Jersey and The Yale Philharmonia.[11]

Kaefer has led performances at venues including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York,[12] Wigmore Hall in London, and La Schola Cantorum in Paris.[13]

Awards

In 2000, Kaefer was recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Charles Ives Scholarship.[14] The following year, he received the Morton Gould Composer Award from the ASCAP Foundation.[15][16]

Kaefer received the BMI foundation's Student Composer Award in 2002 and the Pete Carpenter Fellowship in 2006.[17] He was also a panelist/advisor to Mike Post for the Pete Carpenter Fellowship from 2007 to 2010.[5]

Kaefer has been a guest composer and instructor in the American Composers Orchestra, Film Music Factory Program and is a member and mentor for the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL).[5][18]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director(s) Studio(s) Notes
2006 To Kill a Bore (short) Sunah Kim Schultz Wandering Scholar Productions Composer
They Say It's Wonderful (short) Mitchell Kase Composer
2007 In Pursuit of Woody Allen (short) Richard Portnow Charles River Films

Stoic Films

Composer
Room Service (short) Kevin Castro Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films

Valhalla Motion Pictures

Composer
Mama's Boy Tim Hamilton Warner Bros.

Carr-Santelli

Additional Music
2009 Forget Me Not (short) Federico Castelluccio YMC Films Composer
2010 The Rise and Fall of Their American Dream Nash Bhatt Nash Productions Compsoser
Lily of the Feast (short) Federico Castelluccio Composer
2011 One Fall Marcus Dean Fuller Compass Entertainment Music Programmer, Orchestrator
2012 Pandora's Box (short) Thomas G. Waites Back Pocket Productions

TRM Productions

Composer
2013 A Polite Bribe Robert Orlando Nexus Media Composer
2015 Silence Patton Robert Orlando The Nexus Project Composer
2016 The Kidnapping of a Fish (in post-production) Philip A. Ramos Team Biscuit Films

That Storm Films

Theme music

Television

Year Title Director(s) Notes
2006 Dance School: Juilliard (TV Mini-series) Carlos Chaco

Elyse Sara

n/a
2009 Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff Composer (theme music)
2007-2012 Good Morning America Various Co-composer
2008-2012 Good Morning America Weekend Edition Various Co-composer
2013 Primetime: Would You Fall For That? Composer (theme music) - Episodes #1.1, "Celebrity" and "Reservation"
2009-2014 20/20 Various Co-composer - 135 episodes
2014 Sequestered Kevin Tancharoen

Shawn Ku

Composer - 12 episodes
2016 Making Moves Composer

Video game

Year Title Director(s) Notes
2016 Quantum Break Ben Ketai Live action show - 4 episodes

References

  1. "Yale School of Music 2001-2002" (PDF). yale.edu. July 10, 2001.
  2. "Alumni". Eastman Composition.
  3. "John Kaefer | Composer". www.johnkaefer.com.
  4. 1 2 "Why 'Quantum Break' Sounds Right". Inverse.
  5. 1 2 3 "John Kaefer | Evolution Music Partners". www.evolutionmusicpartners.com.
  6. "Classical Music: Chamber music for the waning days of winter". NJ.com. 25 February 2015.
  7. 1 2 "John Kaefer interview". The Audio Spotlight.
  8. "Exclusive Interview: Composer John Kaefer". Agents of Geek.
  9. "2015-2016 YOUNG COMPOSERS' COMPETITION WINNER" (PDF). Symphony in C. 2015.
  10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-20. Retrieved 2016-04-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. Cariaga, Daniel (2003-03-15). "Composer wins over audiences". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035.
  12. Tommasini, Anthony (2002-05-01). "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Departure Turns Youthful Rhapsody Bittersweet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  13. "Yale Bulletin and Calendar - Current Issue". www.yale.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-04-21.
  14. "American Academy of Arts and Letters - Award Winners". www.artsandletters.org. Archived from the original on 2016-01-31.
  15. "The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards Recipients 1979-2005". www.ascap.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  16. "Recipients Over the Age of 18". www.ascap.com.
  17. "BMI Foundation Announces 18th Annual Pete Carpenter Film Composing Fellows". BMI Foundation.
  18. "The SCL : Community :: Member Directory". www.thescl.com.
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