Fred Steiner

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Frederick "Fred" Steiner (born February 24, 1923 in New York City , New York ; † June 23, 2011 in Ajijic , Jalisco , Mexico ) was an American film composer and arranger .

Live and act

Fred Steiner was the son of the violinist, composer and arranger George Steiner. He started playing the piano at the age of six; at the age of 13 he learned the cello . With a scholarship he attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio , where he had lessons from the composer Normand Lockwood . Gained his first professional experience during the 1940s as a composer, arranger and orchestra conductor in New York radio shows, in particular as musical director of the ABC radio series This Is Your FBI . In 1947 he moved to the west coast of the USA and worked in the Hollywood film and television studios . His early contributions include music on CBS television shows such as Man Against Crime, The Danny Thomas Show, and Gunsmoke . In 1958 Steiner and his family moved to Mexico City , where he worked as the director of an independent record company and built up a music library for Mexican television and state-produced documentaries. After his return to Southern California in 1960, he continued his career in the Hollywood studio; he also studied at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California , where he earned a degree in musicology and later taught composition.

One of his best-known works for film and television was the theme song for the television series Perry Mason , which was based on the novel of the same name. He created a music theme called Park Avenue Beat , which was one of the early TV music styles influenced by jazz and rhythm and blues , and which was often used later. He was also one of the composers of the 1986 Oscar-nominated film music for The Color Purple , he also wrote a. a. Music to Twilight Zone , various Star Trek productions, Have Gun, Will Travel , A Thousand Miles of Dust , A Cage Full of Heroes and Mannix .

Filmography (selection)

Nomination (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Randy Lewis: Fred Steiner, composer of 'Perry Mason' theme, dies at 88 on washingtonpost.com of June 28, 2011 (English), accessed June 29, 2011
  2. Alan Stanbridge: From the Margins to the Mainstream: Jazz, Social Relations, and Discourses of Value in: Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation, Vol 4, No 1 (2008)