Magnificent Migrations

The anticipated soundtrack to the film "Flight - The Genius of Birds" composed by Mark Edward Lewis. Produced in his amazing Dub-Step meets Orchestral cinematic stylings, this score demonstrates another moving example of Lewis' soundtrack composition.

From his earliest memories, Mark Edward Lewis has had a passion for things that touch people at a deep and emotional level. Mark connected with the emotional power of music and its ability to move people. As he matured, he realized that music’s allure for him was in its ability to convey colors, moods, feelings, and, ultimately, to tell stories.

The child of consummate musicians, he was fortunate to grow up in an environment that encouraged, nurtured, and developed his creative abilities. However, Mark’s vision and passion for telling stories quickly grew beyond what music alone could convey. This passion grew steadily as he established himself in both the music and film industries.

Mark grew up in Fullerton, California with the sound of strings all around him. "My mother plays the harp, piano, organ and is a fantastic arranger," said Lewis. "My father plays the violin, viola, cello, bass, piano and is a fantastic conductor." Lewis' father is the conductor of the Fullerton Symphony and taught at Fullerton Community College for more than twenty years.

Lewis began formal piano training at five, and at nine took on the cello. There were a few critical circumstances that thrust the imagination of a boy into musical endeavors. He was heavenly influenced by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops orchestra- giving him the immediate emotional links to music and the language of audio. Then the gift of a Star Wars soundtrack propelled him to discover what secrets Mr. Williams knew that could place such passion into a piece of lyric-less time. “Finally, at age fifteen when I took my first commercial piano course, I had already written several songs. With the infusion of commercial harmony and theory, I had enough tools to make serious strides in my quest.”

This commercial training allowed Mark to expand beyond being “just” a virtuoso of classical piano. He now had the tools to master commercial techniques as well. With this insight, Mark was now able to infuse John Williams’ “voice” (and those of many other composers) with his own innovative style and sensibilities. To this day, Mark is flown around the world to conduct and perform with some of the world’s greatest classical musicians and performers.

Education

Mark entered Fullerton Community College full time at the age of fifteen, graduating with Highest Honors with AA degrees in Music, Commercial Music, and a certificate in Recording Arts. Along the way he won the school's Dan Radlaeur Composition Competition one year and received third place the next.

After receiving his certificate in Film Scoring from UCLA, he enrolled at Azusa Pacific University and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music. He was further distinguished by receiving the "Musician of the Year" as awarded by the Music School.

Following his formal education, Mark continued his educational background by studying for five years under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed composer and film scorer, J.A.C. Redford.

Music and Scoring

While pursuing his degree in music at Fullerton Community College, he scored his first film at the age of seventeen and was asked to produce a Contemporary Christian album for the Korean market at age eighteen. Since then, he has come to be a celebrity in the Korean Christian community with three number one CD’s and a fourth climbing the charts.

Mark attributes much of his success in creating powerful scores to five years of tutelage under the internationally acclaimed composer and film scorer, J.A.C. Redford and his participation in the UCLA Film Scoring Program, “This program changed my life as a composer and expanded my mind in a way that allowed me the techniques to be able to absorb what J.A.C. [Redford] had to teach me.”

Growing up in a contemporary age with solid grounding in classical composition has allowed Mark to bring a unique and innovative style to film scoring. This innovation has helped many a director and producer to save a less than great film with a passionate, moving score. Scoring film has allowed Mark to become “well versed in timing, drama, pacing, acting, and emotional flow of scenes." Long years of study with Fortune 500 business consultants give Mark the ability to understand not only how to please the client/filmmaker, but also how to keep the monetary footprint of his work to a minimum.

Execution

After twenty years of writing and producing award winning scores for film, television and video, composer Mark Edward Lewis is no newcomer to the music scene. A master of mixing near-real synthetic orchestral textures with live orchestra, Mark brings a distinct new flavor of powerful underscore to those productions lucky enough to hire him. Although the orchestra is most familiar to him, he is also a master of the metal, euro-pop and prog-rog genres. However, he finds his most potent application creating hybrid scores using all of his genres! Always at the pinnacle of sample/electronic evolution, Mark is able to create the most original music-production work and meld it with his years of intense compositional study. As a pianist, cellist, guitarist and drummer, Mark's ability to work with velocity is unprecedented. His experience as an award winning director allows him the ability to communicate easily and effortlessly in a way that nearly no other composer can provide. Because of this knowledge, Mark is able to deeply understand the emotional fabric of a scene and collaborate about musical/emotional choices on a level most directors have not experienced with a composer. When the project warrants, Mark also employs his staff at LEM Media Productions to assist in the production of music, mixing, sound design, equipment, and studio space.