Lee Holdridge | |
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Born | Lee Elwood Holdridge March 3, 1944
Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
Occupations | |
Spouse | Elisa Justice |
Parent |
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Website |
www |
Lee Elwood Holdridge (born March 3, 1944) is a Haitian-born American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. [1] An 18-time Emmy Award nominee, he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards, two News and Documentary Emmy Awards, and one Sports Emmy Award. He has also been nominated for two Grammy Awards.
Holdridge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, of a Puerto Rican mother and an American father, Leslie Holdridge, a botanist and climatologist. [2]
While living in Costa Rica, at age ten, he studied the violin with Hugo Mariani, who was at the time the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. He then moved to Boston, where he finished high school and studied composition with Henry Lasker. [2] In New York he had numerous study consultations with composer Nicolas Flagello.
As an adult, Holdridge moved to New York City to continue his music studies and begin his career as a professional composer. [2] There, he composed chamber works, rock pieces, songs, theater music and background scores for short films, and eventually came to Neil Diamond's notice. Diamond then brought Holdridge with him to Los Angeles to write arrangements for his forthcoming albums. After several gold and platinum hits, the two collaborated on the Grammy Award winning score for producer/director Hall Bartlett's film adaptation of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. [2] Neil Diamond sued Bartlett for cutting much of his music from the film. Diamond was also against sharing musical credit with Holdridge; however, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences ruled in Holdridge's favor. [3] Bartlett was ordered to reinstate the five minutes of Diamond's music score and three of his songs, "Anthem", "Prologue", and "Dear Father", and that the onscreen credits were to state "Music and songs by Neil Diamond", "Background score composed and adapted by Neil Diamond and Lee Holdridge", and "Music supervision by Tom Catalano". [4]
Holdridge has composed and orchestrated for many films, [2] including:
He composed for several television series, [2] including:
Holdridge has composed numerous concert works including Fantasy Chorale for Orchestra and Chorus, Concertino for Guitar and Orchestra, Scenes of Summer, Ode to Orion, The Golden Land, the Jefferson Tribute, his suite from the opera Lazarus and His Beloved, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2, Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, the Concertino for Violoncello and Strings, the Serenade for Oboe and Strings, the Ballet Fantasy for Strings and Harp, the Elegy for Harp and Strings, and Sonnet for soprano and orchestra. [2] The full length opera Dulce Rosa based on an Isabel Allende short story premiered in 2013. The ballet Trinity for the Joffrey Ballet, co-authored with Alan Raph. The one act operas Journey to Cordoba and Tanis in America.
Holdridge is married to ex-ballet dancer Elisa Justice. She is western region audition co-director of the Metropolitan Opera National Council, hosts her own classical music radio show called "Eclectic Classics", and has co-produced a new album and documentary with Milt Okun called Great Voices Sing John Denver. She won a "Best Producer" award for a documentary at the Madrid International Film Festival.
Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
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1988 | Top TV Series | Moonlighting | Won | |
2015 | Top Television Series | When Calls the Heart | Won |
Year | Category | Nominated work | Results | Ref. |
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1988 | Original Score | 16 Days of Glory | Nominated | |
1989 | A Friendship in Vienna | Nominated | ||
1994 | Heidi | Nominated |
Year | Category | Nominated work | Results | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Primetime Emmy Awards | ||||
1985 | Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics | " Moonlighting" (from Moonlighting) | Nominated | [8] |
1988 | Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music | Beauty and the Beast | Nominated | |
Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) | Beauty and the Beast (Episode: "Once Upon a Time in the City of New York") | Won | ||
1989 | Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics | "The First Time I Loved Forever" (from Beauty and the Beast: A Distant Shore) | Won | |
1990 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) | Do You Know the Muffin Man? | Nominated | |
1991 | Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music | ABC World of Discovery | Nominated | |
1993 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Main Title Theme Music | Bob | Nominated | |
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) | Call of the Wild | Nominated | ||
1995 | Buffalo Girls (for "Part 1") | Nominated | ||
1996 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special | The Tuskegee Airmen | Nominated | |
1999 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Movie (Dramatic Underscore) | Mutiny | Nominated | |
2002 | Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Dramatic Underscore) | The Mists of Avalon (for "Part 1") | Nominated | |
Daytime Emmy Awards | ||||
1984 | Special Classification of Outstanding Individual Achievement – Music | Woman to Woman | Nominated | |
2000 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | One Life to Live | Won | |
2002 | Nominated | |||
2004 | Nominated | |||
2005 | Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | Won | ||
2006 | Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series | Nominated | ||
2007 | Nominated | [9] | ||
2008 | Nominated | |||
2010 | Nominated | [10] | ||
2012 | Nominated | |||
Sports Emmy Awards | ||||
1998 | Outstanding Achievement in a Craft: Music Composition/Direction/Lyrics | Atlanta's Olympic Glory | Won | |
News and Documentary Emmy Awards | ||||
1988 | Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming – Music | The Explorers: A Century of Discovery | Won | |
1991 | Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music Composition | ABC World of Discovery (for "Beautiful Killers") | Won |
Year | Category | Nominated work | Results | Ref. |
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1973 | Best Instrumental Arrangement | "Prologue/Crunchy Granola Suite" | Nominated | [11] |
1987 | Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television | " Moonlighting" (from Moonlighting: The Television Soundtrack Album) | Nominated |
Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | Best Original Score for a Documentary Feature | Brothers at War | Nominated | [12] |
Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2002 | Best Music in a Motion Picture or Miniseries | The Mists of Avalon | Nominated | [13] |