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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Maria Borg is a young, aspiring film-composer from Malta. Maria recently graduated from the University of Malta with a B.A. (Hons) in Music Studies, specialising in composition. Maria is the GEMS blogger, bringing her unique take on what's happening on all our GEMS programs. Marias Blog will include comments, opinions, reviews and interviews with GEMS faculty, participants and sponsors, keeping you up to date with all our GEMS programs.

Carlos Martin is an accomplished Spanish based composer, conductor and co founder of the brilliantly successful and talented studio orchestra Mad4Strings. Carlos has worked in Los Angeles and London as a composer, and created music currently aired on Netflix or Amazon.

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 Captain 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.

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.

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.

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

Eimear Noone is a GEMS Visiting Artist, and joined us once again this summer 2021. 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.

 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.

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.

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.

Oscar nominated composer, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Kicking off this years program, Miguel Jimenez blew everyone away with his incredible Flamenco Guitar Show. In keeping with our tradition of visiting a Flamenco show during the program, due to the pandemic, we brought the Flamenco to us. Miguel opened the GEMS summer program playing wild, live and direct Flamenco