Sitcom Soundtracks Get an Obie Influence by Sue Angell
Related Links: • TIMARA • Music Consultants Group, Inc.   AUDIO SAMPLE "Express" An example of Hollin's classical, acoustic film scoring.		JUNE 11, 2003--Like many new alumni, Erin Hollins '03 left campus after graduation for the bright lights and career opportunities of the big city. Hollins, a TIMARA major (Technology in Music and Related Arts) with a composition minor, has signed on as an intern with Los Angeles-based Music Consultants Group, Inc., a team of composers who score music for several popular television shows such as Will and Grace and Reba. Hollins will be working with Jonathan Wolff, the man behind the music for the successful NBC show, Seinfeld. As Wolff's assistant, her duties will include midi-orchestration and sequencing--a process that involves computer notation and orchestration using sampled instruments. "The people who interviewed me were impressed with my technical proficiency," Hollins says. "They were under the impression that all Oberlin music students were very traditional. I think my combination of skills as a composer and sound engineer helped me get this job." As a TIMARA major, Hollins learned the "technical side" of the music business. During breaks in the academic year, she interned as a sound engineer at several other studios in Los Angeles and worked with Christina Agamanolis '97 at Siren Music Productions in Newhall, California. Hollins also scored the music for a documentary directed by Jeremy Newman, a visiting professor of art at Oberlin. "I've always been interested in composition, but I enjoy the technical side of music, too," says Hollins. "I like collaborating with other people and experimenting with multimedia productions, as well as composing my own music. The skills I learned in the TIMARA program have increased my career opportunities." In addition to her other duties, Hollins hopes to compose melodies and band arrangements during her internship. "From week to week, composers write original music for several different television shows," Hollins says. "For example, after each scene in Will and Grace, there is a musical transition that leads into the next scene. These transitions are written exclusively for each show and often reflect the mood of the particular scene. Even with five full-time composers on staff, there is a good chance that some of my own compositions will make it to television." Hollins' internship will last a year, but she is already preparing for the next step. "I'm hoping that this internship will lead to a more permanent position on the staff of the American Television Arts and Sciences Foundation," says Hollins. "Someday, I would like to open my own music production studio and compose music for films."
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