Meet the Finalist: Michael Frankenberger, "Salzburg Tradition Within Us"

Tell us about yourself, and about Salzburg Tradition Within Us.

I am Michael Frankenberger, a composer from salzburg in Austria.

I am currently working as freelance Composer for Companies like Hans Zimmer´s „Bleeding Fingers Custom Music/Extreme Music", „Atom Music Audio" and „Gothic Storm Music“. I also did an internship at Hans Zimmer´s company „Remote Control Productions“ in Summer 2018. I just co-composed the music for the new Documentary “We Shall Not Die Now” in collaboration with Ashton Gleckman and Grammy and Golden Globe nominated composer Benjamin Wallfisch who wrote the Main theme for this project.

Since 2017 I had the chance to work on several Projects including Feature Films, TV Series, Shortfilms, Commercials, Library Music, Concert Music and even did some additional arranging for the new "Silent Night - A Song for the World" film which was released on TV on Christmas 2018. I recently scored the Pilot Episode "Gracemarch" by "Game of Thrones" actor Ross O'Hennessy, "We Shall Not Die Now", "Salzburg. Brauchtum im Herzen“ and "Rainy Season" based on a story by Stephen King. In March 2019 I released my first solo album "In Silentio" which was recorded at the Film Studios Babelsberg in Berlin where I conducted the String section and Piano of the Film Orchestra Babelsberg.

Share a memorable moment you experienced working on this project.

It was really exciting to work very close with the director „Daniel Ronacher“ on this incredible Shortfilm. We started working on the Music when he finished the editing of the first few minutes of it and from there it just expanded as the film got longer than we actually expected. The most exciting moment was definetely the Premiere of the shortfilm with a big audience in a theatre.

Name 3 collaborators that you'd take with you to any other project.

Rich Aitken (My Mixing Engineer who also mixed the score for this shortfilm)

Ashton Gleckman (My Co-Composer for the Score of „We Shall Not Die Now“

Daniel Ronacher (Dierector of „Salzburg. Brauchtum im Herzen“.)

3 tips you’d like to share with aspiring artists in your field:

1. Connecting with other Composers, Directors and Producers is an essential part of our job as filmcomposer.

2. Study the music of the masters like Bach, Wagner, Mahler, etc..

3. Work with as many directors as possible because nothing is worth as much as „real life“ experience.

What do you hope to achieve in your career in the next 5 years?

I want to keep working with a lot of incredible directors and producers and hopefully to work for successful composers to learn from them.

Michael Frankenberger is nominated for Best Score of the Year at the New York Film Awards.