From Pixar to Pulitzer

From Pixar to PulitzerAn Evening with Ira Hearshen
Composer, Arranger and Orchestrator of Film, TV and Original Music

Thursday, October 22
7:30 PM Reception to follow

No-charge for paid up sisterhood members (includes 6:45 PM Pre-Glow)
$25 for non-members (open to the community)

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Ira Hearshen

Ira Hearshen was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan where he earned the Bachelor of Music degree in applied theory and composition from Wayne State University. During his college years, Hearshen began playing trumpet and arranging for bands in Detroit doing Motown and covers for popular music groups such as Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. In 1972, he moved to Los Angeles to study orchestration at the Grove School of Music and began playing trumpet in local clubs. Hearshen studied counterpoint with Allyn Ferguson and commercial and film music with Kim Richmond, Dick Grove and Albert Harris. Hearshen’s private orchestration studies with Harris led to his first opportunity for television/film work. In 1983, Harris recommended Hearshen to composer Joe Harnell who needed orchestration assistance on two concurrent series – Cliffhangers and The Incredible Hulk. This initial experience began his career as a film music arranger/orchestrator which now spans five decades.[1]

Hearshen’s credits for film, television, Broadway, and the concert stage are extensive. His arrangements have been featured in the Detroit Symphony’s Pine Knob Summer Series, The Summer Pops Series for John Denver, the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony, and the Air Combat Heritage Band. His film arranging & orchestration credits include; Guarding Tess, The Three Musketeers, All Dogs Go To Heaven 2, Meet The Fockers, Monsters Inc.(which landed Randy Newman the 2001 Oscar for Best Song which Hearshen arranged & conducted),the television series Beauty and the Beast, and the Broadway show Into the Light. His most recent credits include orchestrating and conducting the scores to The Best Man & its sequel; Best Man Holiday, Cars 2, Super 8, Prep & Landing 2, John Carter, Barber-Shop 3, Beauty Shop 4 as well as the entire orchestral scores for all three of the Rush Hour movies and the orchestrations on A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2. The Toy Story 2 project included the Sinatra-style arrangement of the movie’s theme You’ve Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman and performed by Robert Goulet. This arrangement was recently re-recorded for the Toy Story Environmental Ride at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. More recently he transcribed Chick Corea’s solo from the title cut to Return to Forever’s album: ‘The Romantic Warrior” for symphonic orchestra so the remaining members of the band could play it as a remembrance of Chick.

Hearshen’s works for the concert stage include the original composition Symphony on Themes of John Phillip Sousa, nominated for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in music, Divertimento for Band, a Patriotic Overture, and in 2008 ‘Enterprise’- a work for Symphonic Wind Ensemble , Full mixed chorus,& 3 vocal soloists commissioned by the University of Alabama as a memorial piece for the city of Enterprise, Al.& the natural disaster which destroyed its high school also taking 7 lives. The piece was premiered in Enterprise March 1, 2009 with 2 live concerts. It was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Music for 2009.