Moreno Valley College Associate Professor of Music Donald Foster will soon add the movie franchise Star Wars to the list of titles he has worked on in the film music industry.
Foster, a clarinet player, will work with Composer John Williams to help score the music to Star Wars: the Force Awakens, the seventh installment of the movie franchise. Williams, who has composed the music for every film in the series, will write the score for the music. Williams currently holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person, and is the second mot nominated person in Academy Awards history, behind Walt Disney.
Music sessions for the film will take place in Los Angeles beginning this April and will span several months. This is the first Star Wars film to have the music produced in Los Angeles. Previous films were scored at Abbey Road with the London Symphony Orchestra. The move to Los Angeles will generate millions of dollars in wages, benefits and other production spending. The film is scheduled for release on Dec. 18, 2015.
This is not Foster’s first time working with Williams. He and Williams first worked together on the Indiana Jones movie Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In December 2013, Foster performed on the soundtrack for the The Book Thief, earning an on-film screen credit, a rarity for musicians. Foster also worked on The Adventures of Tin Tin, The Secret of the Unicorn, War Horse, the re-recording of the NBC Sports theme, and the soundtrack for The Maze Runner. He has also worked regularly on the ABC show Revenge and Resurrection.
“I remember being drawn to John Williams’ music from a very early age, whether I was hiding my face while watching Jaws or reveling in the emotional delight of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” Foster said.
“The fact that I am now working for him regularly and will get to be a part of the Star Wars franchise is such an enormous concept. I simply never had the courage or even knew it was possible to dream so big.”
In addition to teaching and scoring music for film and television at Moreno Valley College, Foster performs regularly with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and the Pasadena and Santa Barbara Symphonies.