Film Scoring Great Conrad Pope ’73 Holds Residency with NEC Composition Department

Sought after by renowned film composers like John Williams, Alexandre Desplat, and Hans Zimmer for his expertise in orchestration, conducting, and score production, esteemed composer and NEC alumnus Conrad Pope '73 held a residency with New England Conservatory's Composition department last week. 

Pope led a question-and-answer session with Composition students during his first day on campus. He began with a presentation about his work, a remarkable list that includes scoring films like Home Alone, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Catch Me If You Can, Pirates of the Caribbean, War of the Worlds, Night at the Museum, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and dozens more. Pope encouraged students to think beyond a scene's dialogue and action when composing a score and delve deeply into the overall mood, story, cinematography, background, and characters. He played a clip from Seabiscuit, a film he scored, without sound, and discussed how each factor played a role in his decision-making when composing the score. Playing the clip a second time — this time with sound — students heard his process come to life. 

Pope also met with ten Composition students for 20-minute one-on-one sessions, during which students could ask him for guidance on anything they had questions about regarding scoring or finding success in the film business. 

On day two of his NEC residency, Pope led a packed masterclass with members of the NEC community and the general public. He listened to a group of students' individual scores and offered expert feedback. 

Flora Sun ’24 presented an animated original film called Our Line, which she collaborated on with her sister, Charlotte Sun, a filmmaker at CalArts. “You did not overwhelm the film; you complimented it,” remarked Pope. 

Monstar Cao ’24 presented two works: a rescore of a scene from No Country for Old Men and a score she has been working on for an original film in Chinese, 在水中（Under Water), directed by Ziying He. “I’m incredibly honored to have received guidance and recognition from the Hollywood scoring master Conrad Pope,” Cao shared on social media. 

Haoyu Zheng ’23 showed a rescoring of a trailer for the video game Ghost of Tsushima and a rescored scene from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. 

Samuel Schwartz ’26 showed an in-progress film called Bessie's Movie Date, which he is working on in collaboration with the film's director, Emerson student Samatha Kulin. 

“Doing film music, I would really encourage all of you to delve into other arts,” Pope told the students. “And while you’re in this particular city, if you find that you’ve run out of ideas one day, I can say you might find it really interesting to walk about four blocks down Huntington, take a right, and go into the MFA. Take a look at the art and see what sings to you. See if you can hear something with your eyes. Try to see how that art is constructed and what the stories are.” 

Sun noted in her conversation with Pope how films scored in the style of John Williams are less frequently made in the modern day. She asked whether he felt this classic style would return or disappear due to technology. 

“As long as people come to cinema to not just be entertained but to feel things and to confront problems in their lives; joy in their life, no, I don't think the John Williams’ style is going to go out of style,” said Pope. “It will be transformed. It will be transformed by people like you.”