David Spear
Curriculum Vitae/Syllabi
David Spear is a composer and conductor who began his career orchestrating many film scores for Elmer Bernstein including Animal House, Ghostbusters, Airplane and Heavy Metal. After his Broadway debut as Music Director of Merlin, the Magical Musical, Spear scored three Academy Award nominated films: Ballet Robotique, Rainbow War and The Courage to Care. He also wrote the music for the Emmy Award winning documentary, Surviving Everest for National Geographic. He has led the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, and the Munich Philharmonic in performances and recordings of his own works. In June, 2008 he conducted the Indianapolis Symphony in the premiere of The Langston Hughes Project featuring Ice-T and the Ron McCurdy Quartet.
Professor Spear has served on the faculties of Berklee College of Music and the USC Thornton School of Music where, in 2005, he was awarded the Casden Institute Faculty Research Grant to re-score Samuel Goldwyn's 1922 Classic Yiddish Silent Film Hungry Hearts, in collaboration with his students. The new score and restored print premiered at the 2007 New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center. Professor Spear holds a B.A. in Music Composition from UCLA, where he was awarded the Henry Mancini Scholarship.
Courses
- MPATC-UE 1248 - Composition for Film & Multimedia
- MPAME-GE 2096 - Advanced Conducting
- MPATC-GE 2321 - Composition