David Cieri – Composer | On The Fly Filmmaking

He’s a super talented composer, just dropped a new soundtrack today; a compilation soundtrack that celebrates his decade working with Ken Burns/Lynn Novick and Florentine Films documentaries including ‘The Vietnam War’, ‘The Roosevelts’, ‘Prohibition’, ‘Baseball’ and ‘The Address’. Ken could certainly choose any composer in the world for his films but he returns to David again and again. The title of the album is ‘Notes from the Underscore: 10 Years with Florentine Films’. Here is a link for your review: https://access.ropeadope.com/david-cieri.

We are also promoting David’s score to ‘Oklahoma City’, that was nominated for a Primetime Emmy award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. The film explores the intertwined narratives of the worst domestic terrorist attack in the U.S and the anti-government movement that inspired the actions of Timothy McVeigh, including two standoffs with law enforcement with tragic outcomes – Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.  The music dutifully, gently and deftly helps with the storytelling, which balances between then horrors of the Oklahoma City attack and the backstory leading up to it. ​

Recently, David contributed several hours of score to ‘The Vietnam War’ (along with Trent Reznor/ Atticus Ross and Yo-Yo Ma and Silk Road). He spent three weeks in Vietnam prior to beginning work on the project, taking in the sounds and music of the region, some of which he incorporated into the score. The documentary averaged 6.7M Viewers For PBS and reached 34M In Live+7 ratings. The premiere episode of ‘The Vietnam War’ was the top-performing PBS’ telecast since the finale of ‘Downton Abbey’ and is the highest-streamed series opener in PBS history. The doc has also been licensed by 21 broadcasters in 43 countries.

This fall, David released ‘White Dust’, a jazz album with Pulitzer-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. The New York Times listed their song ‘Dolphy’s Aviary’ among their new and notable tracks: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/arts/music/playlist-u2-maroon-5-sza-pharrell-williams.html.