Todd Boekelheide

The temp music work ignited an interest in film scoring. Boekelheide began to explore this idea by furthering his music education at Mills College in Oakland. The Mills music department was known for its eclectic roots and broad-minded approach. Boekelheide studied harmony and counterpoint with Allaudin Mathieu, Indian raga singing with Terry Riley, conducting with David Rosenboom, and became a member of Lou Harrison’s Javanese gamelan. After his time at Mills, Boekelheide was asked to score his first film, a short, End of Innocence: June 19, 1953, directed by Stephen Stept. Carroll Ballard’s film Never Cry Wolf was next. Mark Isham was asked to score the film, and Boekelheide produced the score and mixed the film, which earned him an Oscar nomination in 1984. The next year found him mixing the music on Amadeus (1984) which resulted in his winning an Oscar for Best Sound in 1985. Boekelheide went on to mix a number of high-profile films, notably for Philip Kaufman, Peter Weir, Hector Babenco, Bob Rafelson, David Lynch, and David Fincher. For a time, Boekelheide was both scoring films and mixing films. But as the scoring work increased, the mixing work gradually tapered off, and his last job as a re-recording mixer was for David Fincher on Panic Room in 2002. As a film composer, Boekelheide came to be known for his scores for documentary films, and was awarded an Emmy for his score for Kids of Survival: The Life and Art of Tim Rollins and K.O.S. in 1999. Emmy nominations followed in 2007 for Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters, and again in 2010 for Blessed is the Match. Another Emmy nomination was announced in July 2017, for Symphony of the Soil. He received a Genie Award nomination for Best Original Score at the 14th Genie Awards in 1994, for his work on the 1993 Canadian film Digger. Boekelheide is a member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and since 2012 he has regularly served as an advisor for the Sundance Documentary Music and Sound Design Lab, currently held every year at Skywalker Sound in Lucas Valley, near Nicasio, California. His scoring work continues, with recent credits including 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets for Marc Silver, and Saving Eden for Bill Couturié.