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Good news from Michigan: Film scoring industry & Terry Herald

With an onslaught of negative news articles coming out about the Michigan economy, I thought it would be nice to share something positive, and to give credit where it's due. Jumbie partner Terry Herald has been doing amazing work writing for film scores. Here's an excerpt from "Scoring Michigan's New Film Industry":

"It looks very promising," says Terry Herald, a composer who also teaches film music history at Oakland University. Much of Herald's work has been with local projects, including the soundtrack for the documentary, Journey to Justice, produced locally by Steve Palackdharry and distributed in Europe.

However, he says, "All of the major creative work has been done by talent from California. The work here is the basic labor involved in a film gaffers, grips, set people. There have been some actors that have scored minor roles. But the creative team is coming with the producers out of California. That might change when studios are actually built here."

For more, click here.

Terry Herald Attends Holocaust Documentary Screening in Germany

from Jumbie Journal, July 2006

Jumbie partner and Musica Mundi leader Terry Herald just returned  from Munich, Germany where he attended the July 16 screening of Journey to Justice at the Munich Film Festival.  Terry composed the original music for this powerful documentary.  Journey to Justice tells the story of Howard Triest, who as a teenager escaped the Nazi domination of his home in Munich to later return as an American soldier involved in the liberation of Buchenwald and the rescue of his grandmother from Theresienstadt.  Acting as the interpreter for the psychiatrists at the Nuremberg Trials, he interviewed the Nazi high command responsible for the deaths of his parents and close relatives.

Terry composed and recorded forty-five minutes of music for this important project using a chamber orchestra consisting of English horn, piano, guitar, solo violin and a 15-piece string section.  Terry also conducted and performed classical guitar.  The violin soloist and concertmaster for the recording was Musica Mundi member Sonia Lee. Sonia is a graduate of Julliard and former Principal Second Violin of the Toronto Symphony.  Her soulful performances of Terry’s score perfectly capture the poignancy of this most personal story of courage, loss and redemption.       

After receiving critical acclaim at several U.S. festivals, including the Sarasota Film Festival where it played at four sold out screenings, Journey to Justice has been giving a place of honor at the Munich festival, with a reception to follow this European premier.  The film's producer, Steve Palackdharry, has garnered high accolades for his sensitive and moving treatment of this important story.

Now that he is back from Munich, Terry is scheduled to finish the mixing of the Musica Mundi CD.

Herald's Film Score "Journey to Justice"

from Jumbie Journal, October 2005

Journey to Justice, a newly produced documentary, tells the powerful story of Howard Triest. As a teenager he escaped the Nazi domination of his home in Munich to later return as an American soldier involved in the liberation of Buchenwald and the rescue of his grandmother from Theresienstadt. Acting as the interpreter for the psychiatrists at the Nuremberg Trials he interviewed the Nazi high command responsible for the deaths of his parents and close relatives.

Jumbie partner Terry Herald, an experienced film composer, created the original music for the documentary. Producer Steve Palackdharry relied on Herald's music to express the poignancy of the inevitable partings, the urgency of the flight from Nazi persecution and the eventual sense of triumph and reconciliation that Howard experiences. Employing a wonderful cast of musicians including Ann Lemke on English Horn, Jumbie artist Sonia Lee on solo violin and Lindsay Papke on piano and a string ensemble, Herald had a broad palette of timbres to paint an emotionally complex picture. His haunting "Howard's Theme" ties the film together with a sense of the loneliness Triest experienced while still conveying hopefulness.

An independent film, Journey to Justice has been submitted to the Chicago Film Festival, with plans to submit to both the Berlin and Munich film festivals. A New York premier is currently in the works.

Find out more about the film at JourneyToJusticeFilm.com