Running for the first time this year, SoundTrack_Zurich (STZ, 29 September-1 October) is a new European film and media music conference that is set to take place during the 2020 Zurich Film Festival and is part of ZFF Industry. It is being organised by SMECA (Swiss Media Composers Association) and curated by Michael P Aust (SoundTrack_Cologne), and it will unspool in cooperation with SoundTrack_Cologne, FFM (Forum Filmmusik), ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts) and IMMSANE International Media Music and Sound Arts Network in Education. STZ’s primary goal is to present the work of Swiss and European composers on an equal footing with that of their international colleagues, while also serving as an umbrella for all of the musical activities that run during the Zurich Film Festival.

More than 50 speakers will participate in the first edition of STZ, and American musician Ray Parker Jr, the composer of the Ghostbusters theme song, among others, will be the guest of honour. He will present the world premiere of Who You Gonna Call, a documentary on his career. He will also take part in a talk on film and music with Mathieu Jaton, director of the Montreux Jazz Festival. This is also one of the events being organised in partnership with the well-known music festival, which, in conjunction with the Zurich Film Festival, is planning to hold concerts in Zurich. Meanwhile, the ZFF will screen a music-related film from this year’s programme at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2021.

Among the other guests at STZ is acclaimed Swiss director Rolf Lyssy, who will chat with composer Adina Friis about their collaboration to compose music for the upcoming comedy Eden für jeden. Also, Oscar-winning British composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love) will present a case study on his work on the upcoming drama DNA [+lire aussi :
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fiche film], directed by Maïwenn. In other case studies, European Film Award winner John Gürtler (System Crasher [+lire aussi :
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interview : Nora Fingscheidt
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interview : Burhan Qurbani
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Furthermore, local composer Matteo Pagamici and music supervisor Pascal Muenger will examine their work on the score for the most successful Swiss film of the year, Needle Park Baby [+lire aussi :
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interview : Giorgio Diritti
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In a series of sessions within the industry section of STZ, the topics that will be discussed include conflict management, trends in sync, music supervision, production music, self-promotion and PR, collecting societies know-how, the challenges of digitisation, and coronavirus emergency aid. Also, in the hands-on “Composing for Film with Artificial Intelligence” workshop, organised by the FOCAL foundation, Dutch composer and AI researcher Janne Spijkervet will demonstrate new, creative ways of composing music with algorithms, thanks to their amazing capabilities and power to aid creative writing, from sparking new ideas to developing a melody into a full score.

Finally, the STZ programme also includes a special screening, as Swiss post-industrial band The Young Gods will perform live to the short documentary Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands by Peter Mettler. Besides this, composer Kristian Eidnes Andersen will comment live on the ZFF competition drama Charter [+lire aussi :
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interview : Amanda Kernell
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It should be noted that music has always been one of the Zurich Film Festival’s core interests, as since 2012, it has been collaborating with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Forum Filmmusik to hold the International Film Music Competition. This year’s edition is being postponed until 2021, although the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich will hold two film-music concerts, entitled “Drama in Film”, during STZ.