Composers /Sound & Recording / ROMAN BEILHARZ
Meet Roman Beilharz: His education, his career, his credits and his current activities. This is what he says about himself: „At the end of the day do not compete my vision of creating compelling original songs and intense film scores for this overloaded, but – in terms of quality – hopelessly under-supplied music market we face today.“
Producer ♦ Writer ♦ Composer
At the age of 4 I got deeply touched by the music of Satie and Debussy gently weaving around my mother’s piano. Three years later I started to play the piano, guitar and drums – learning by doing. I recorded my first MCs using a special overdub-strategy: After having recorded one instrument, I played another one while rolling the tape and recorded both. From 8 to 13 years of age I suffered from violin lessons (which comes out to be quite useful today), driving me to focus on the drums. I imagined to become the best drummer in the world, and actually have been on the way. I accompanied soloists like Albert Mangelsdorff, Nad Adderly, Bill Ramsey, Costa Cordalis and many others touring all over the world. Between the poles of Jazz, Pop, Rock and Neue Musik I threw out many home-grown band-projects in those years, too.
Every remaining minute I hung out at my cousin’s studio, witnessing the labor-pains of computerized production of music. This way I cut my teeth on recording, editing and mixing music. During my study at the College of Music/Cologne (degree dissertation about ‚The Life and Music of Prince‘), I more and more turned away from rehearsals and concerts and headed towards scoring and production. Nothing seemed to be more fascinating to me than strong ambient music supporting visual contents. I analyzed scores and sound-design of films I loved and began to dive into the subject relentlessly: even when there was no film to work on, I composed music along to my own interior scenes.
After many years writing for special interest magazines like Music & PC, Studio Magazin and Videofilmen, I started to write and direct films myself. My feature screenplay ‚The Gap‘ – a funky SciFi Dramedy – has been awarded in the US and Germany and went into development with ThunderBall Films/LA, but never really took off for several reasons. Most recently I decided to buy camera and HD editing equipment and add film and video production capabilities to our recording studio. This way we can provide a vast range of post-production services and can create audiovisual content independent of big budgets and strong partners.
Since 2010 I am teaching media production and songwriting at the Kassel University and have a great time teaching younger people all I know about music and filming. Frequent trips to the world of theater and dance open up fascinating tasks, but at the end of the day do not compete my vision of creating intense scores for this overloaded, but – in terms of quality – hopelessly under-supplied film music market we face today.
Roman has always impressed me with the breadth of his knowledge and, especially, the creativity he has brought to bear on any project.
Tom Hopkins – Studio Owner & Composer (PBS Television)/Gig Harbor, WA
I am noticing most of Roman’s projects for many years now, which have shown a vast range of artistic activities as a composer of various genres – as well as that he is a true expert in technological respects.
Klaus Doldinger – Composer (Ocean’s 13, Palmetto, The Boat)