Dean Grinsfelder, Music Composed For Film And Television

OVERVIEW

Veteran composer Dean Grinsfelder has provided music for hundreds of film, television and interactive projects over the past two decades. His credits include feature films (P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, Hysteria, Stonebrook), major documentaries (Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures, Dinosaur Planet, Alien Planet), television series (Wolverine & The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, American Fighter Pilot), video game (Mortal Kombat 9), game shows & pageants (Miss Universe/Miss USA Pageants, Lingo game show), commercials (Ford, Mobil Oil, Office Depot), logos and I.D.s (AMC Theaters, Bristol Bay Productions), and interactive media (Microsoft’s Freelancer, EA’s Ultima: Ascension). Dean also serves as the Head of Production for Q-Factory Music, Inc., a music library focusing on the film trailer industry, and his music can be heard in countless film trailers and promos (Spider-man 3, Iron Man, Up, The Bourne Supremacy, The Cider House Rules).

Dean’s work has earned him an Emmy Award nomination for his score for Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures and an Emmy win in 2004 for music editing his score for Dinosaur Planet. He has also received three Telly Awards, a Mobius Award and numerous other accolades and recognition across a variety of media types.

Equally comfortable in front of an orchestra or a wall of computers, Dean brings forth a broad range of musical and technological skills (composing, orchestrating, conducting, music editing & supervision, engineering & recording, etc.). He began playing piano at the age of 5, earned a B.A. in Music Composition from UC Berkeley and trained in film scoring at UCLA Extension under the tutelage of TV-Film music icon Gerry Fried and renowned orchestrator Scott Smalley. Along the way, he earned a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from UCLA and subsequently achieved the position of Vice President of Real Estate Finance for the Wall Street firms of Salomon Brothers and CS First Boston. He is an avid tennis player (USTA level 5.0+), trail runner, soccer and lacrosse coach and devoted father of three boys.

BACKGROUND

Dean is a native of the town of Ross in Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco. His innate musical abilities became evident when he began playing the piano at the age of five, improvising elementary songs without formal instruction. He joined his first band at the age of 13 and focused on music during his high school and college education. After earning a degree in Music Composition from UC Berkeley in 1982 (with a minor in business), Dean performed as a professional pianist and keyboardist in numerous jazz, pop, rock, soul and rhythm & blues groups based in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

Dean's passion for film and professional orientation directed his music career toward composing for film and television. In 1996, Dean was selected to participate in the highly-acclaimed ASCAP/Fred Karlin Film Scoring Workshop.

Dean's work has earned him accolades and recognition in a number of venues. Many of the independent films he has scored have won awards and received critical praise at film festivals around the country. Dean's score for the 1999 Logix Communications TV commercial (with/Leonard Nimoy) won the national "Telly" award, a "Mobius" award and numerous local market advertising awards. He has also received various awards for his work on Disney's "Image Quotes" campaign and SAS's "Harvest" commercials.

Dean has a unique business orientation toward the music and entertainment industries, and has organized and moderated seminars on business and technical subjects for fellow composers at UCLA and for the Society of Composers and Lyricists.

Dean is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the Society of Composers & Lyricists, and the American Society of Music Arrangers & Composers (ASMAC).