Episode No. 74 Saturday, November 23, 2019 Christopher Caliendo, Composer, Guitarist, Arranger, Publisher, Film Work, Educator
Meet LA’s own, Christopher Caliendo. As a composer, Caliendo is considered a “best bet” by the Los Angeles Times, with more than 400 published theatrical works. Caliendo has won numerous honors, including 10-time winner of the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Sheet Music Award. Notable recent commissions for Caliendo’s work include Sherlock Holmes: Symphonic Suite and The Hobbit: Symphonic Suite, commissioned by the Pacific Chamber Symphony, and Ender’s Game: Concert Band Suite, commissioned by the United States Air Force, a recording of which was released to honor the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
As a composer for film and television, Caliendo’s accomplishments include the 20th Century Fox-commissioned soundtrack to John Ford’s 1924 silent film The Iron Horse. Called an “excellent orchestral score” by New York Times critic Dave Kehr, the 136-minute original work was featured at 20th Century Fox’s 75th anniversary celebration in 2010, where selections were performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, along with music from Alfred Newman, David Raskin, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams and Rodgers and Hammerstein at the Hollywood Bowl.
He was also commissioned by Sony Pictures to compose a new score for the 2005 re-release of Sam Peckinpah’s 1965 feature Major Dundee, which earned him the honor of being the first composer in film history to re-score a major motion picture. Caliendo has also written music for the TV series’ Dallas, Knot’s Landing and Paradise, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1988. Caliendo’s distinction as the first American to be twice-commissioned by Pope John Paul II for the Vatican’s “Encounters of Sacred Contemporary Music Festival” in Rome, Italy, where he debuted The Mystic Saints, a two-hour drama based on four of the Catholic church’s most enigmatic pioneers in Western spirituality. His latest religious work is Seven Psalms.
Caliendo’s love of music began at an early age, playing guitar at age 5 and composing music at age 14. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, and the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in music and graduated magna cum laude.
MUSIC: Enchanted Pilgrimage Christopher Caliendo
MUSIC: The opening of the film MAJOR DUNDEE Christopher Caliendo
MUSIC: ALLEGRIA (Happy) from Flameneo Americano Christopher Caliendo
MUSIC: The Mystic Saints: Food of Humility – St. John of the Cross: Christopher Caliendo
MUSIC: The Mystic Saints: THE EFFICACY OF PATIENCE – TERESA OF AVILA Christopher Caliendo
