Aaron Fruchtman

Background

Fruchtman was born in Los Angeles, in 1980.

Education

He received an Advanced Studies Certificate in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he studied with renowned composers David Raksin, Christopher Young, Joe Harnell, Jack Smalley and David Spear. Fruchtman earned a Master of Music degree in composition from University of California, Riverside.

Career

Currently he is a doctoral candidate in musicology at the University of California, Riverside. His dissertation examines underscores of Jewish-themed films and their composers’ social and cultural world in the Golden Age of Hollywood. He has presented papers at numerous conferences including New York University’s Music and the Moving Image, Youngstown State University’s Jewish Music and Identity, University of California, Los Angeles’s Thinking Beyond the Canon, and at the national meeting of the American Musicological Society in Louisville, Kentucky.

Fruchtman composed scores for the first two feature films directed by Amber Benson, (best known from her role as Tara Maclay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Following their film collaborations, Fruchtman produced and arranged Benson’s vocal debut on the album You Are Light. Fruchtman was commissioned to write The Journey, a four-movement piece for narrator, chorus, and orchestra.

This epic piece, written expressly for the New York City Master Chorale, tells the historic tale of settlers migrating across the Oregon Trail to the Pacific Ocean. Under the direction of Artistic Director Thea Kano, the New York City Master Chorale premiered The Journey on May 31, 2009 at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Academy Award-nominated actor Bruce Dern performed the narrator role.

Achievements

• He began piano lessons at the age of three. After graduating from Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, California, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Berklee College of Music and was awarded the Symphony Hall Composer Award. Chance was winner of the Audience Choice Award at the Sidewalk Film Festival and was followed by Lovers, Liars &amp.

Works

• Other Work

  • He produced and arranged Benson’s vocal debut on the album You Are Light. Fruchtman composed scores for the first two feature films directed by Amber Benson, (best known from her role as Tara Maclay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer).