Podcast appearances and mentions of megan cavallari

Alex moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. But it was because of a film scoring class taught by Adam Schoenberg where Alex developed a love for story-telling and decided to take the leap into scoring. Alex received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Occidental College in 2017 and has since scored for over 25 short films and web series. Alex is currently a studio runner for Crosby Collective Studios LA, where he helps out Bains (Jay Sean, The Wanted) and Chris Montgomery (Vance Joyce, Rachel Platten). He also assists film composers, Darius Holbert and Megan Cavallari.

Composer, musician, and producer Megan Cavallari has a knack for creating music that industry legend Richard Kraft recently called “amazing and earworm candy.” From film and television soundtracks to stage musicals to having composed music for the Los Angeles Kings, the award-winning Philadelphia native has managed to land at the top of a her profession (despite the fact that less than 1% of all professional composers are females). Now Cavallari has been tapped to write and produce the soundtrack, songs, and score for the upcoming animated feature “Jacob Marley” with animator and visual effects director Russ Francis. That goes along with her Jonathan McHugh-produced opera “The Righteous One: The Irena Sandler Story,” about a WWII hero who saved 2500 children in the Warsaw Ghetto, and her ongoing collaboration with Grammy-nominated pop producer Eric Robinson. Perhaps Cavallari’s favorite gig is her passion and dedication to ice hockey (she regularly plays left wing in a men’s league). Cavallari is also a committed vegan. While raising an eleven year old daughter with juvenile arthritis, Cavallari has also launched the Talk Foundation Project, where she records the thoughts and observations of terminally ill children. With a tireless positivity grounded in her Jewish faith, her unique professional profile is matched only by her amazing work ethic and generous spirit. http://megancavallari.com/

Megan Cavallari - She's a composer and song writer who is compiling the sound track to a new movie "Jacob Marley" set to air in 2017Kayla Huth - At 18 shes starred in an independent film set to air soon and she's the co-host of the "Ray's Rookies" a show about MLB's Tampa Bay Rays.

Megan Cavallari - She's a composer and song writer who is compiling the sound track to a new movie "Jacob Marley" set to air in 2017Kayla Huth - At 18 shes starred in an independent film set to air soon and she's the co-host of the "Ray's Rookies" a show about MLB's Tampa Bay Rays.

The Total Tutor Neil Haley and Peter Elvidge will interview Award Winning Film/TV Composer Megan Cavallari. DVDX Award nominee, bestselling composer, musical director, international vocal producer (for creating the music of Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper), and critically acclaimed composer Megan Cavallari's signature strengths are her unforgettable melody, sophistication, versatility, non-stop inventiveness, whimsy and humor.   Megan has worked as composer, arranger, director and producer on a diverse range of music for film, television, theater, children's records and toys (she helped to create and design the music for the Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper toy line). Her clients have included Warner Brothers, Fox, Disney, Geffen, HBO, Paramount, Mattel, MGM, Lions Gate, Showtime, Hasbro, Hanna-Barbera, Kid Rhino, DIC, and Nokia.   Classically trained with a gift for collaboration, she has been equally successful creating for records as well as for live action and animation projects. From the melodic, lush, character driven score of Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper, to the ebullient, colorful, and comedic music of Happily Ever After, and the hip, world music-based Nokia commercial with digital cutup (composed with John von Seggern of Digital Cutup Lounge), Megan's body of work is richly diverse.   Cavallari also enjoys supervisory roles. She has been credited with successfully shepherding the music program of Higglytown Heroes (which rose to the #1 television spot, in its time slot, for kids during her tenure as the show's musical supervisor).      

We talk to composer Megan Cavallari about her work in film scoring.

We talk to composer Megan Cavallari about her work in film scoring.

So, you think you had a busy day? Consider what a typical working day might be like for composer Megan Cavallari. Start with the fact that Cavallari is one of only a very small handful of women who have established themselves as major creative artists in the professional music industry. But not even most of the men can point to a resume as diverse, eclectic, and impressive as this diminutive Jewish-Italian Philadelphia native: more than a 100 film scores as performer, arranger, conductor, or composer; the official composer of the L.A. Kings for ten seasons; 25 television shows; 16 stage musicals; and hundreds of songs, jingles, and assorted musical offerings have earned her respect, acclaim, multiple professional awards, and a reputation as someone who seemingly creates and produces music in every waking moment of a 37 hour day. Then consider that while music is the dominant focus of Megan Cavallari’s professional life, it’s probably the easiest thing she does. For kicks, she might suit up and play left wing in a men’s hockey league, where she might find herself hurtling over the ice after being checked by a guy twice her weight. Or, she might be dealing with the very real challenges facing her eleven year-old daughter, surviving life with debilitating juvenile arthritis. She might be at temple, reaffirming a faith that is part and parcel of a family legacy with all the drama of an HBO miniseries. Or she might be talking to children in a hospital’s terminal ward, recording their thoughts in private and open conversations – just because she knows those moments of free thought and reflection are all the more valuable to those with little time left. In short, your busy day has nothing on Megan Cavallari’s. Cavallari sees a strong personal and spiritual component to her projects, beginning with a lesson learned from one of her early mentors and champions. “Danny Elfman used to say about making music, ‘you put the antenna up and you hope God is listening.’” Cavallari had just completed her master’s degree at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts when she came to California with her award-winning musical project and caught the ear of Elfman. Her first high-profile gig was alongside Elfman as he composed and recorded the now-classic score from Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which lead to work on several subsequent Elfman scores. She likewise worked with legendary film scoring artists Jerry Goldsmith and Edward Shearmur, and artists such as Johnny Mathis. “Music takes people into a very different space and realm, and engaging with that means I’m always full of new ideas.” She also confesses to a history of being in the right place at the right time, and being around the right people. “I’m super lucky – and then I surround myself with great musicians, producers, directors, and music supervisors who keep asking me to do things!” The gritty dedication to teamwork also explains her passion for ice hockey, reflected in the many pieces of memorabilia that populate her recording studio as well as her passion for the Kings, who are more than just one of her many employers. “Hockey reminds me of life,” she explains. “You fall down hard, you get up. It’s poetry at eighty miles an hour, and it all comes down to getting that puck past that huge man into that tiny cage. There’s no star – you have to work as a team, you have to have those guys behind you, you have to have your line. I have my line in my work – my musicians, my agents – and my line has to be great for everything to work.” That the work ethic is the product of strong, passionate parents shouldn’t be surprising, but the story of Megan Cavallari’s family offers additional perspective. Her Jewish mother’s family, emigrated from Russia and engaged as union activists, were targeted by the FBI and blacklisted during the McCarthy era (an uncle was called before congressional committees), which lead them to hide their Jewishness. Meanwhile, her Italian-born father was raised Catholic, but had rejected the church when he saw how they treated Italian Jews during World War II. “My father was more into Judaism than my mother,” Cavallari says. “Passover was his favorite holiday.” Learning prayers from her grandmother and great aunt, Megan wasn’t able to fully explore and embrace her traditions until she relocated to California after college. Despite the complex issues of religious identity, Cavallari’s parents excelled and exemplifying the better values of both faith and social responsibility – they were teachers who specialized in working with disadvantaged kids. “My parents had a loving relationship for 43 years, and I grew up in a home that was completely supportive,” she explains, citing a brother and sister who are both business owners “and fighters.” That fight is needed on a daily basis when it comes to raising daughter Shoshana, who is in chronic pain from juvenile arthritis. “She’s suffering, but she has such a great attitude,” Cavallari observes, proud that her daughter will attend the prestigious Milken Community School next year. “She’s really my role model – kids tend to look at the bright side of things, so I learn a lot from them.” That’s one of the impulses that lead to Cavallari beginning the Talk Foundation Project. The idea is simple: with some simple digital recording technology, she visits with children in terminal health situations and simply allows them to talk. Currently engaging with Kaiser Permanente with specialists who work in childhood oncology, the recordings are simply private mementos of the subject’s life at that moment. “I say a prayer before I go into the room, I remind myself that this is for the good,” she says of the 20- to 30-minute conversations. “Some of these kids are happy, some are angry, some are going to rant or scream – but whatever they need to do, they do it.” The constant demands for writing and producing music keep Cavallari focused, despite the many obstacles that she has faced. “Less than half-a-percent of composers are women,” she says. She recalls a particularly humiliating moment early in her career: an agent had submitted her as “M. Cavallari,” and she was hired based on her demo. But upon entering a production meeting, she was told that “casting was upstairs.” After explaining who she was, she was terminated because someone on the production insisted that only a man could compose the score for an action film. That’s lead to one of Cavallari’s bucket-list projects: “Someday, I want to do a ‘Mission: Impossible’ score with an all-female orchestra.” (Her other bucket-list gig would be working with fellow vegan Moby.) Until then, Cavallari is hard at work on a new animated musical film project called “Jacob Marley” with director Russ Francis, with several other high-profile film gigs in development. She’s also begun a relationship with Grammy-nominated pop producer Eric Robinson, and is working with producer/composer Jonathon McHugh on a new opera about WWII hero Irena Sandler (who rescued 2500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto), which will debut with the Angel City Chorus. All projects to fill an ordinary day in the life of a not-so-ordinary composer. http://megancavallari.com/

Composer, musician, and producer Megan Cavallari has a knack for creating music that industry legend Richard Kraft recently called “amazing and earworm candy.”  From film and television soundtracks to stage musicals to being the official composer of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, the award-winning Philadelphia native has managed to land at the top of a her profession (despite the fact that less than 1% of all professional composers are females). She’s beginning her tenth season with the LA Kings – perhaps her favorite gig because of her passion and dedication to ice hockey (she regularly plays left wing in a men’s league).  Cavallari is also a committed vegan.  While raising an eleven year old daughter with juvenile arthritis, Cavallari has also launched the Talk Foundation Project, where she records the thoughts and observations of terminally ill children. Megan is a great interview. Enjoy! 

This episode of The Big Scoop with Coop I will have guest composer, musician, and producer Megan Cavallari.  Megan is successful in the music industry and she have put her musical masterpiece torward different movies, plays, and even the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and more.  Megan is also a female hockey player and she will speak about how she started in her career, her succes, give advice on how to get started in her career and much more.  Make sure you stay tuned to The Big Scoop with Coop!

This episode of The Big Scoop with Coop I will have guest composer, musician, and producer Megan Cavallari.  Megan is successful in the music industry and she have put her musical masterpiece torward different movies, plays, and even the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and more.  Megan is also a female hockey player and she will speak about how she started in her career, her succes, give advice on how to get started in her career and much more.  Make sure you stay tuned to The Big Scoop with Coop!