The Curtis Factor
An ambitious project about the famous music conservatory, a cornerstone of the city’s center, musical and publishing history.. The school’s alumni and mentors are a who’s who in music, Rota, Bernstein, Stokowski, and Lang Lang, to name a few. The commissioned composition was filmed during the recording session and we had hoped to have a special premiere, formal live-concert event. As it was, PBS broadcast the premiere, but man what a thrill. I designed a few Feature pages that paired with the mutifaceted package. The conservatory linked the microsite for many months.
Drawing represents the limestone carving on the conservatory facade, a common architecture adornment to buildings of that period.
Shooting during the recording was so much fun. The team’s idea happened, was magic. Maybe the video’s intro I inspired captured that moment.
For my part in the project, in addition to video camera work and project organization, I did a lot of photo research and editing. Composer Nino Rota’s iconic work included “The Godfather Theme” and film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini. But images of the man were impossible to find until I located a privaate collection in Italy who was happy to share. He told me of an image that Fellini had drawn of Rota on a napkin. That was like finding gold and all for the promise of a cold American beer.
