Martin Bresnick has had a distinguished
career as a composer of concert music: symphonic works performed by the Chicago
Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony and the Rome Radio Orchestra, among many
others. His chamber music has been played in festivals all over the world and
recorded on many labels.
Martin's music for film, too, has been widely recognized and honored, especially
in the field of serious documentaries. He received his first Academy Award
nomination for Arthur & Lillie, a short documentary he worked on with Jon
Else.
His work attracted even greater notice (and another Academy Award nomination)
when he scored Jon Else's remarkable feature length documentary "The Day
After Trinity". That film, screened throughout the world, has been considered
one of the greatest documentaries of the 20th century. Among the many citations
and awards the film received was a special prize from the Sundance Film Festival.
Since then Martin has collaborated with Beth Ferris (Next Year Country), Jan
Nascimbene (The Mediterranean, a dramatic feature) The Center for Visual History,
Voices & Visions, Jill Janows (WCW: William Carlos Williams) Richard Rogers
(Man Made Out Of Words: Wallace Stevens).
In recent years, he composed for the Cadillac Desert series consisting of
four feature length films created for the PBS Prime Time program. The films
include: Mulhollands' Dream, An American Nile, The Mercy of Nature, (with Jon
Else) and The Last Oasis (with Linda Harrar).
In December 2002, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (Michael Schwarz, Director),
a two hour film about the life of Muhammad and how it has affected the lives
of American muslims, was premiered on PBS.
Working with gifted students (all young professionals) at the Yale School
of Music where he has taught since 1981, Martin Bresnick has been able to provide
music that sounds rich and nuanced at relatively low production costs. All
scores are recorded digitally at Yale's venerable and acoustically beautiful
Sprague Hall. This is real music for real instruments - lovingly created and
recorded to meet the highest standards in contemporary film music.