Episode 7

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Published on:

5th Dec 2023

1.7 Catherine Joy

Join Jason this week as he welcomes composer Catherine Joy to the podcast!

With a passion for music and collaboration, Catherine Joy is a composer for film, media and live performance. She recently won Best Documentary Score for the uplifting feature documentary Gold Balls, and in 2014 won the Independent Music Vox Pop Award for her soundtrack for the film All Things Hidden. Catherine is the Executive Director for the Alliance for Women Film Composers. She plays many instruments including violin, piano, and guitar.

Catherine has scored award-winning films, including the feature documentary Gold Balls which won Best Documentary at Southampton International Film Festival. She composed the music for the integral song in Ellen Gerstein's short film Come Away With Me which has won many awards including Best Sound and Music at Australia's Connect Film Festival. Catherine also scored the video game The Hole Story which won the 2016 ID@Xbox Rising Star Award.

Catherine was recently part of the music teams for four documentary projects premiering at Sundance 2018. She arranged and orchestrated on the Netflix doc series Wild Wild Country, music edited the Joan Jett: Band Reputation feature and and was both orchestrator and score supervisor on the documentaries RBG and Dark Money. Catherine also scored the popular web series Capitol Hill which is now televised through Europe and Canada. Catherine is currently scoring the video game The Endless Mission, the documentary Naughty Books and the horror film The Parish.

Catherine is originally from Tasmania, Australia and moved to the States to pursue a career in music. She lives in Los Angeles with her two cats Bondi and Bronte.

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About the Podcast

Composer Chats
Composer Chat is a podcast where we talk a little bit about music, a little bit about life, and a whole lot about whatever we feel like at the moment! Each episode I am joined by a special guest composer and we will chat about their pathway towards success in their musical career!

About your host

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Jason Nitsch

Jason Nitsch’s music is equally at home on the concert stage, in outdoor venues, and streaming online, reaching the broadest audience of musicians, performers, and music enthusiasts possible. As a composer dedicated to the exploration of new ideas, his music has evolved over a 25-year career to incorporate more and more non-traditional elements, such as effect tracks, sound drops, and enveloping electroacoustic works combining live and pre-recorded elements. Much of his work is rooted in a large ensemble context; his wind ensemble works have received thousands of performances throughout the US including at Midwest, State Music Conferences including Texas, Colorado, and Kentucky Music Educators Associations, Colleges and Universities like Baylor University, the University of North Texas, and Syracuse University, and at other regional music festivals (ITEA).

In recent years Jason has focused on more intimate chamber musical settings, including collaborations with solo musicians such as trumpeter Kate Amrine , Cellist Carolyn Regula (The Cello Doll) and vocalist Michaela Catapano, as well as chamber groups across the US (Chicago Brass Choir), while continuing expand his sizable catalog of works for larger instrumental forces.

Jason is well known for his work as an educator, dedicated to providing young promising musicians with the foundational experiences on which a lifetime of music-making can be built, and is pursuing research into the ways that music students process their experiences as learners and performers.

Combining his long career in music with a deep love of science fiction and a natural talent for storytelling, Jason recently launched his first podcast, “Beyond the Belt: Adventures from the Outer Rim.” “Beyond the Belt” is a collection of 8 original dramatic science fiction episodes for which he served as writer, producer, and composer. It tells the story of a scientific research experiment gone horribly wrong. With Zombies (of course!).

Jason has released three digital albums in recent years, including the Season One Soundtrack from the Beyond the Belt podcast, “1000 Steps to Nowhere", a collection of chamber music compositions, and most recently “The Dead Teach the Living,” featuring nine vocal collaborations ranging from solo works to Orchestral compositions.

Jason is a lover of dogs, video games, and all things Star Wars (yes, even the prequels). He is also a husband, father of two budding musicians, and a patron of art forms that stretch traditional boundaries.

He currently lives in Waxhachie, TX with his family. He can occasionally be sighted lurking at select music conferences.