Film Music Award 2014 goes to Roman Lerch
Roman Lerch is the winner of the Fondation Suisa Film Music Prize, which comes with a prize of 15,000 francs. Lerch composed his very first complete feature film score for the film 'Shana - The Wolf’s Music,« directed by Nino Jacusso.
A truly promising start to the career of the 26-year-old composer from Solothurn. "Shana - The Wolf's Music" tells the story of a talented young violinist from Canada's First Nations indigenous people. The music is therefore not just an accompanying element in the Swiss-Canadian co-production, but an integral part of the plot. A central part of the film music therefore had to be composed before filming began. A difficult task that director Nino Jacusso set for the young composer Roman Lerch.
"The character of Shana is strongly shaped by the music," says Lerch. I wanted to compose very unique music for the protagonist without kitschily imitating the music of the First Nations of Canada." And he succeeded so brilliantly that the jury of six experts voted unanimously in favor of Roman Lerch as the winner of this year's Fondation Suisa Film Music Prize. The jury described his music as "very inspired, passionate and masterfully composed". Roman Lerch was presented with the award by jury president Marco Blaser on Friday, August 8, 2014 at the 67th International Film Festival in Locarno.
Roman Lerch was born in Solothurn in 1987. After several years of band experience, the pianist decided to pursue professional training, which he completed at the universities of the arts in Bern and Zurich, focusing on film and theater composition, among other things. His teachers included Peter Scherer and Niki Reiser, both former film music prize winners of the Fondation Suisa. The 2014 Film Music Prize for Roman Lerch is therefore also pleasing proof that Switzerland has a young, talented and well-trained generation of film music composers.
The film "Shana - The Wolf's Music" will be screened in Italian on Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 9 p.m. on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, presented by the group Genitori Locarnese.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcxwzPchm6M
The jury of the Film Music Award 2014:
Marco Blaser, President (Board of Directors Locarno Film Festival, former Director RSI)
Jürg von Allmen (Digiton Tonstudio Zurich)
Mario Beretta (stage and film music composer, Zurich)
David Fonjallaz (Lomotion, film production, Bern)
Corinne Rossi (Praesens Film, Zurich)
Yvonne Söhner (former Swiss Radio and Television SRF)
