Laura Rossi: Take Five
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Laura has written extensively for film and television, including scores for Paul Andrew Williams critically acclaimed features London to Brighton and The Cottage. She has also scored the feature film The Firm for Vertigo Films directed by Nick Love, Broken Lines by Sallie Aprahamian and Shooting Shona directed by Abner and Kamma Pastoll. Laura has also written music for ITV (including documentaries Marking Time and Forgotten Pilots), Fox Searchlight, Carlton TV (The Real Sir Francis Drake), HTV (The Cotswold Canals), Quintessence Films and the BBC.
Laura has been writing music for the British Film Institute since 1998 for re-releases of early silent movies. These include the best-selling Silent Shakespeare (seven short films) which she has toured round cinemas performing live with the films at venues including the Barbican, London and the Belfast and Sao Paulo film festivals. Other BFI films Laura has scored are Twilight of a Woman’s Soul on the DVD Mad Love(a collection of films by Evgenii Bauer), C.O.D. by Desmond Dickenson and Tusalava by Len Lye on the video British Avant Garde vol.2.
The Imperial War Museum commisioned Laura to write an orchestral score for The Battle of the Ancre, an important historical film from the 1st World War which was performed live with film at the museum. She was subsequently commissioned to write a score for the 1916 film The Battle of the Somme, which remains one of the most successful British films ever made. The score, which premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, was recorded and performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and has recently been released on CD and DVD to worldwide critical acclaim.
Laura is the course tutor for Music in Film at the London Film Academy and has taken masterclasses and has appeared as a guest speaker at the International Conference of Philosophy and Literature, The Bird’s Eye View Film Festival, The Skillset Screen Academy in Wales, The Imperial War Museum, University of Strathclyde, Liverpool Hope University and Poredenone Film Festival, Italy.
Laura has been commissioned to write numerous chamber and orchestral works including Under the Rainbow; a seven movement orchestral/choral piece involving the use of soloists from around the world featuring Chinese Er-hu, Indian Sitar, African drums, Japanese Koto, saxophone, flute and children’s choir. Other commissions include Jailhouse GraffitI, premiered by Ealing Symphony Orchestra at St. John Smith Square, Golden Jubilee (a special commission for the Queen’s Jubilee), A Poor Torn Heart, for King’s Cross Church Festival and The River, performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall by the Solaris String Quartet. She has also written jazz orchestra works performed at the London Jazz Festival as well as music for dance and music theatre. She has recently written pieces for the LCM percussion and Jazz piano syllabus published by Stainer and Bell and works for Boosey and Hawkes writing music for their production music catalogue, imagem music.