Gerhard Daum is a German composer specialising in film scores,[1][2] musician and music producer.
Composer Gerhard Daum
Biography
Gerhard Daum, born on September 30, 1956, in the southern German city of Freiburg im Breisgau, developed an interest in music early in his childhood. He began playing the trumpet in his youth and performed with several brass bands. As a teenager, he also learned to play the guitar and piano before starting his studies in music. Daum attended the University of Music in Karlsruhe, where he graduated with a music diploma, with classical guitar as his main instrument. His studies included a semester at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, Austria, where he focused on jazz and improvisation.
Following his studies, Daum worked as a guitar teacher at the renowned Jazz & Rock School Freiburg from 1985. During this time, he also toured through Europe with his own jazz and rock ensemble, the Gerhard Daum Quartett, performing in Germany, France..,[3]Switzerland and Austria. He later founded the music publishing company Gerhard Daum Music Edition[4] in 1993 and his label ToneWork Records in 1995.
To further his knowledge, Daum moved to Hollywood in 1997. He took Music Ethnology classes at CSUN and participated in the film music master class at UCLA. Daum gathered international experience and composed scores for productions such as Sony's Felon.[6]
He currently lives in Berlin, where he continues to compose for a variety of productions.
Work
A versatile composer, Daum has worked on music for film, television series, commercials, and video games[7] in Germany[8] and the US and has won awards for his work.
Of the numerous television series Daum has composed music for, highlights include Forsthaus Falkenau, Die Garmisch-Cops, and German cult TV series Tatort. He gained recognition through his scores for independent feature films such as Reflex Action,[9]Hollywood Kills,[10]Prince of Swine[11] and most notably for the Hollywood action drama Felon,[12] starring Val Kilmer, Sam Shephard, and Stephen Dorff. The music from the movie was performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Film Music Night in Munich in 2009.[13]
His music for the image film Every Child Counts won the NTVA Music Competition Gold Award in 2001[14]
Daum also made a name for himself with his scores for documentaries, in particular the soundtrack to the German documentary Hindenburg & Hitler – The Making of a Führer[15] and the US film That Which I Love Destroys Me,[16] which won the Voice Award 2015[17] at UCLA's Royce Hall.
In addition to film music, Daum has produced several solo CD projects.[18] His debut album, a world music project titled Mental Voyager – A Music Journey, was released in 1993 on the label ToneWorks Records and was re-released in 2014. A second album followed in 1996, Mental Voyager – Voiceland, which was one of few Dolby Surround releases at the time. The album comprises seven songs, a postmodern, neoclassical crossover between epic, symphonic elements, classical solo voices and rock, combined with electronic sound design. The songs feature vocals by members of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Choir, Cambridge Consort Voices and Historisches Ensemble Regensburg.
Daum released a further solo project on ToneWorks Records in 2015, Epic Drama,[19] which includes epic tracks for orchestra, electric guitars, drums, solo voices and choirs in a postmodern neo-classic rock symphonic style.
Film Music Suites,[20] released on ToneWork Records in 2017, presents a collection of suites, re-orchestrated from Daum’s recent original compositions for film and TV. All of the pieces were recorded with the Brandenburger Symphoniker under the direction of Hannes Ferrand.
Since 2001, Daum has also composed and produced industrial releases for film, television and games for the Gerhard Daum Music Edition/ToneWorks Records, first in Los Angeles and now in Berlin. These include Explosive Choirs (2007), Green Evolution (2008), Storm Guitars (2009), and 3D-Scoring (2012).
Filmography
That Which I love Destroys Me (USA, 2015)
Die Garmisch-Cops (Germany, 2012–2014))
Hindenburg – Der Mann, der Hitler zum Kanzler machte (Germany, 2014)
