Recording Mission Ferrari
Back in October 2015 Rhian Sheehan asked me to help out on the music he was writing for a new rollercoaster ride at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. Yesterday it all came to fruition with five hours of recording down in Wellington with some of NZ's finest musicians. There was a 10-piece brass section and 19-piece string section from Stroma FilmWorks. Absolute credit must go to these amazing musicians who perform at such an incredible level, yet between cues are so friendly and enjoyable to work with.
Rhian Sheehan wrote the music, the brilliant Tane Upjohn-Beatson came on board as co-writer and co-arranger, the legendary Graham Kennedy and John Neill recorded and engineered the session, and I conducted, with some co-arranging, orchestration and music prep along the way.
Speaking of that small job of music prep, here are some stats for those delightful few who appreciate such things:
29 musicians, 16 cues, 48 scores (3 copies of each), multiple layers totalling 305 different instrumental parts, equalling 494 copies of the parts, 551 copies of scores and parts combined, don't ask for the number of actual pages, and thank goodness Jetstar didn't weigh my carry-on.
By far the best part of my involvement in this project was following it right through from early stages to recording. So often I prepare everything and then pass it on to be printed and conducted, but this time it was great to be printing and taping parts, and then seeing it on the stands and taking the musicians through it. Need more of this, it's good for the soul.
So, now we just need to go to Abu Dhabi to experience it.
