Deborah Lurie

Deborah Ruth Lurie (born March 9, 1974) is an American composer, arranger, and music producer from Boston, Massachusetts. She has scored several films such as ''Sleepover'' (2004), ''An Unfinished Life'', ''Mozart and the Whale'', (both 2005), ''Sydney White'' (2007), ''Dear John'' (2010), ''One for the Money'' (2012), ''Safe Haven'' (2013), and ''Poms'' (2019). She has been a string arranger for musicians such as Brandi Carlile, Kelly Clarkson, Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, and Katy Perry. Lurie has also been a string arranger for several rock bands such as 3 Doors Down, Bon Jovi, Creed, Halestorm, Papa Roach, Simple Plan, The All-American Rejects, and Three Days Grace, though her best known collaborations have been with Hoobastank and Theory of a Deadman.

In 2015, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awarded Lurie the Shirley Walker Award for her contributions to the diversity of film and television music. She was one of the composers interviewed in ''Score: A Film Music Documentary''. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences extended membership to Lurie in 2016 for her contributions to motion pictures. Her work will also be heard in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water , The Astronaut Wives Club The Astronaut Wives Club, Amazon’s Just Add Magic , and various product campaigns for Apple.

She worked with other composers providing additional music on several films, Spider-man 3 (2007), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and the Mystic Manor attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland – which received a Thea Award which honors individuals, projects, and technologies in the arena of themed attractions and experiences worldwide. In 2015 she received the ASCAP Shirley Walker Award in 2015.

Early Life and Education

Deborah Lurie was born in Boston Massachusetts and grew up in Palo Alto, California. She learnt to play piano by ear at the age of two by hearing different tones as colors. She was also singing in choirs and musical theater productions. As a young actress and singer she took part in local productions of ''Fiddler on the Roof'', ''Oklahoma'', ''Hair!'', and ''Of Thee I Sing''. She credits her early knowledge of music to her work onstage and in the orchestra pit playing piano for these productions. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelors in Music Theory, Composition, and Film Scoring and received the award for Most Outstanding Undergraduate.

Career Steps and Highlights

Early Work

Deborah began composing for and earning credits for several short films including short cult film, ''George Lucas In Love'' (1999) directed by Joe Nussbaum. Around this time she worked on her first film, the indie feature, ''Surfacing''.

She built a reputation for her ability to “doctor” or fix scores that weren’t working and was called in to fix several films. Her style of intensive research for each project allowed her to correct music to more appropriately fit the content of the show or film. She worked on the comedy, ''View From the Top'', on composer Teddy Shapiro’s score as well as re-scoring one of her first feature works  Unfinished Life collaboration with Lasse Hallström and with composer, and her former professor, Christopher Young.A big part of her career was scoring a post-apocalyptic animated film 9 in London that was produced by Tim Burton.

Building off of her education in the orchestra pit of musicals and in classes at USC she also worked on several films in varied musical roles, as an additional music producer and arranger on ''Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle'', a choir arranger on ''The Curse of El Charro'', an additional music composer for ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', and an orchestrator for ''Mozart and the Whale''.

Awards and Accomplishments

In 2015, Deborah Lurie won the ASCAP Shirley Walker Award which honors those whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of film and television music, stating in her acceptance speech the importance of highlighting the success of women composers to inspire the next aspiring women composers.

Her work composing on the Disney films, ''Prom'', ''Invisible Sister'', and as an additional composer for ''Hercules: The Animated Series, Bubble Boy,'' and ''Alice in Wonderland'' made her one of 10 women composers to score Disney projects out of a total of 183 composers.

Present Day and Onwards

Throughout her career Deborah Lurie has composed, arranged, orchestrated, and produced music in numerous films. Her work as an additional composer has influenced and corrected the scores of some of the largest pictures in the last twenty years, including ''Dreamgirls'', ''Charlotte's Web'', ''Men In Black 3'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Annie'', and ''Captain Marvel''.

Her work on this wide array of film and TV projects has built partnerships with composers Christopher Young, John Ottman, and Danny Elfman. As a string arranger for rock and pop albums her production and arranging expertise strengthened her network in the recording music industry with artists like Kelly Clarkson, Bon Jovi and Katy Perry.

She continues to work in many musical roles and films, one of her aspiring dream projects is to be able to compose for a dramatic work like a live action children’s film in the style of ''Charlotte’s Web''. Provided by Wikipedia