GEMS
FACULTY · GUEST SPEAKERS

Nigel Ashley Lees

GEMS founder & director

Founder & Director of GEMS, Nigel Ashley Lees has a vision to create dynamic, exciting, enjoyable & purposeful, quality music education programs for people wishing to enter the Global Entertainment Industry. Bringing together professionals, industry specialists, educators, award winning music experts and composers to share craft skills & career development best practices for students entering the global entertainment industry.

Garry Schyman

program instructor

Garry Schyman, is a GEMS Program Instructor, BAFTA winner & BAFTA nominated composer. Garry is widely recognised as a leading Video Game composer. Garry Schyman is Adjunct Professor at USC teaching in the world renown “Screen Scoring” program since 2010 and has been teaching on GEMS programs since we started in 2017.

Zacarías M. de la Riva

guest speaker

Zacarías M. de la Riva has composed more than 50 films and multiple series and has won several awards. In 2004 he composed the first short film TADEO JONES (Enrique Gato). In 2012 he was nominated for the Goya Awards for the soundtrack of Las Aventuras de Tadeo Jones. 2017 he composed the sequel Tadeo Jones and the Secret of King Midas. Finally in 2022 he composed the fabulous Tadeo Jones 3: The Emerald Tablet. Zacarías M. de la Riva has collaborated with Telecinco Cinema, Lightbox Animation Studios.

Lolita Ritmanis

guest speaker

Film Composer Lolita Ritmanis is the former President at Alliance for Women Film Composers and Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Lolita gave an Inspirational talk, exclusively for all our past and present GEMS Contemporary Woman Composers.

Andy Hill

guest speaker

Andy Hill is a GEMS Visiting Artist & GRAMMY winning motion picture music producer. Former Vice President of music production for Walt Disney Pictures, his films have earned 9 Academy Awards. Andy developed and directed MA Programs at Columbia & Berklee. Andy will be teaching a Masterclass from his book, Scoring the Screen. All participants will receive his book Scoring the Screen, to accompany his class.

Craig Stuart Garfinkle

guest speaker

Craig Stuart Garfinkle is a GEMS Guest Speaker. An award winning music producer and Emmy nominated composer. His work includes feature films, trailers documentaries, network television, Commercials, stage musicals and albums.

Alexander Vangelos

guest speaker

Alexander Vangelos is the Composer Agent at First Artist Managment LA. Alexanders talk & Q&A on Artist Managment was fantastic, what First Artist Managment look for in a composer and the professional, caring relationships that they create with their composers.

ACWC

collaborator

The Association of Canadian Women Composers has brought to fruition a super collaboration between ACWC's composers and GEMS. GEMS has aimed for equality within the composers industry by providing our annual Women Contemporary Composers Scholarships. We have welcomed several ACWC's composer guest speakers on the GEMS summer program.

Positive Grid

sponsor

At the start of the GEMS film scoring summer program, we had the honour of being supported by Positive Grid and been able to award the BAIS series as amazing awards for our participants. Check out all the winners.

Gorka Oteiza

press

Gorka Oteiza is a GEMS visiting speaker and writer, critic and founder of the brilliant SoundTrackFest. A popular online websites for news on film, game and TV music. Reporting from festivals, covering events, including articles and interviews with some of the leading composers of our time, like this interview with James Newton Howard. Gorka will be presenting his Masterclass, "It's not only about the music."

Dr. Juanjo Molina

program instructor

Juanjo Molina is a Spanish Composer specialised in Film Scoring, TV and Theatre. Juanjo is an experienced Composer, Songwriter, Arranger, Orchestrator & Conductor for Visual Media. Juanjo is the lead instructor on the Film Scoring Program Bootcamp and Christopher Young’s assistant.

Pete Anthony

program instructor

Pete Anthony, is a GEMS Program Instructor, and Hollywoods busiest go to orchestrators and conductors, working on over 400 feature films with Hollywood’s top composers, including James Newton Howard, Danny Elfman, John Powell, Marco Beltrami, Marc Shaiman, John Debney, Theodore Shapiro and Christopher Young. Pete Anthony is Professor at USC teaching in the world renown “Screen Scoring” program, and has been teaching on the GEMS program since 2019.

Eimear Noone

guest speaker

Eimear Noone is a long time GEMS Guest Speaker. Eimear Noone's composing & conducting work includes 26 film and video game titles. Her score for "World of WarCraft: Warlords of Draenor" received the Hollywood Music in Media Award. In 2020 Eimear Noone became the first female conductor in the history of the Academy Awards. Eimear is a fabulous and inspirational speaker on the GEMS Film Scoring Summer Program.

Maggie Rodford

guest speaker

Maggie Rodford is the Managing Director of Air Edel. Maggie joined us for her talk & Q&A on Music Supervision Artist Representation. On top of her amazing work, Maggie is also Chair of the BAFTA Archive, Heritage & Exhibitions Committee, and currently the President of the UK & European Guild of Music Supervisors.

Neil Brand

guest speaker

Neil Brand is a broadcaster for BBC Radio 4 Film Program and a Silent Movie Composer. Neil taught his absolutely wonderful 4 day Masterclass covering Noir soundtracks, Sound design, minimalist scores, the click track origin, synth sounds and so much more

Álvaro Domínguez

program instructor

Joining us this year is composer and orchestrator Álvaro Domínguez Vázquez whom we are absolutely delighted to welcome to the GEMS faculty. Álvaro who worked for many years as the assistant to Alberto Iglesias. Álvaro took individual score review sessions for selected composers to work with on their scores before submitting to the RTVE librarian.

Chandler Poling

guest speaker

Chandler Poling is the Publicist at White Bear PR. Chandler delivered his fantastic, comprehensive and brilliant talk and Q&A covering PR in the film scoring industry, the company ethos, the European market, and how White Bear support its family of composers.

CEV

college partner

Once again GEMS will be partnering with CEV, a world class audio visual college, and for over 40 years it has been a center of excellence and a go to destination for students aiming to work in the music industry. We are proud to be partnering once again with this wonderful institution.

Warners Entertainment

sponsor

Our sponsor awards partner Warners Entertainment, provided the new 2017 Shadow of War Video Game. The score had been recently written, conducted & recorded by Garry Schyman and featured in the newly released Video Game.

Dr.Francesco Menini

program instructor

Dr. Francesco Menini is an experienced contemporary Italian freelance composer, orchestrator and ghostwriter. Francesco divides his time between composition & teaching. His compositions have been performed and featured in various TV, Film and theatre projects. Since 2017 Francesco has been a faculty lecturer and score librarian on the GEMS Film Scoring Summer Program.

Christopher Young

program instructor

Christopher Young is an A list Hollywood film composer. A Golden Globe nominated composer whose credits include such horror films as Drag Me to Hell, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser and Spiderman 3 for which he received the Film & TV Music Award for best score for a dramatic feature film. Christopher Young has contributed to numerous young composers career development in Hollywood and continues to support, mentor and guide new film composers all over the world. Christopher Young is Professor at USC teaching in the world renown “Screen Scoring” program, and has been teaching on GEMS prrams since we began in 2017.

Marco Beltrami

guest speaker

Marco Beltrami is an Academy Award nominated composer who has worked on multiple film and television scores for horror, action, science fiction, Western, and superhero. Marco is a fabulous composer who applies intriguing compositional first steps in his creative process. Marco and Buck are an exceptionally cool team and we are delighted to have them in our lives.

Alfonso G. Aguilar

guest speaker

Alfonso G. Aguilar won the World Soundtrack Award’s Public Choice Award for his score to the Oscar-nominated film Klaus, Alfonso was the music producer of the Abbey Road acoustic sessions for “Guerra”, the latest album of leading Mexican artist Carlos Rivera, which achieved gold and platinum record recognition. He is also the founder of Sounditi; an audio branding firm that applies neuroscience and artificial intelligence to develop the music ID for big brands. He also founded his own music production company based in Los Angeles, Bucharest, and Madrid, that specializes in film scores.

Starr Parodi

guest speaker

Starr Parodi is a Grammy award-winning artist, composer & producer, and regular GEMS Visiting Guest Speaker. Starr has released three critically acclaimed solo albums, scoring hundreds of episodes of TV & film. Starr served as President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers and is a passionate and inspirational speaker at the GEMS Film Scoring Summer Program.

Richard Bellis

guest speaker

Richard Bellis is a GEMS Visiting Artist & EMMY award-winning Hollywood composer. Richard lectures at USC teaching in the world renown “Screen Scoring” program. Writer, Speaker, & Board of Director member of ASCAP. Former President of the Society of Composers & Lyricists. Richard will be presenting his brilliant Masterclass Creativity on a Deadline. All participants will receive his online video Creativity on a Deadline to accompany his presentation.

Sergio Llopis

program instructor

Joining us this year is composer and orchestrator Sergio Llopis whom we are absolutely delighted to welcome to the GEMS faculty. Sergio held individual score review sessions for selected composers to work with on their scores before submitting to the RTVE librarian.

Tim Hayes

guest speaker

Tim Hayes is the Senior Creative Manager at Wise Music Group in London. His brilliant talk and Q&A covered Commissioning and Licensing for both score and commercially released material from a publishers perspective.

Native Instruments

sponsor

Since the very start of the GEMS film scoring summer program, we have had the honour of being supported by Native Instruments in Los Angeles and been able to award the Komplete DAW series as amazing awards for our participants in categories such as Best MockUp, Best Composition, Best Orchestration. Check out all the winners.

Jose Vinader

music producer

GOYA winner, Jose Vinader, legendary Spanish film music producer has worked on nearly 300 films, with composers such as Alberto Iglesias, for movies such as Capitán Alatriste (Viggo Mortensen) & Automata (Antonio Banderas). Also with artists José Carreras, Alfredo Kraus, Paco de Lucía, Montserrat Caballé and orchestras such as the Madrid Symphony Orchestra & London Philharmonic.