Today we’d like to introduce you to Kara Talve.
Kara, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started playing classical piano when I was very young. My father, being a musician himself focusing on jazz fusion, taught me a lot about harmony before I could even read music! Because of that, the genre will always be my root. He showed me a lot of things growing up, and one of them was his favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption. It was an overwhelming and powerful experience, hearing Thomas Newman’s score – it moved me so much that it inspired me to pursue a career as a film composer, so I went ahead to major in Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music.
I got a great foundation for working in the industry at Berklee. I tried to treat all my projects as real gigs. In my last semester, I received the BMI scholarship award, which interestingly enough, was presented by Thomas Newman that year. This milestone is what made me realize that I really had to pursue this dream of being a composer.
Upon graduating in 2018, I moved out to Los Angeles immediately and was lucky enough to gather several internship opportunities. One of them was an internship at Bear McCreary’s Sparks & Shadows. During my first year in LA, I was living on my good friend Jina’s couch for a few months. I got on my feet when I landed a position as a composer’s assistant at Bleeding Fingers Music. The application process required me to arrange a theme, and amongst 85 other applicants, I got the gig!
I was able to learn many valuable things from the team of staff composers and creatives during my time as an assistant and Junior Composer. It’s been a long road, but now I can say that I am very honored to be a full-time composer here. My tracks for Extreme Music have been placed on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars”, VH1’s “Love and Hip Hop Atlanta” to name a couple. It’s been a pleasure to write music for shows such as FOX’s Masterchef and LEGO masters.
My ambition is to write for more nature documentaries. I love to write melodic and sweeping orchestral music, and I have always been inspired by composers like Joe Hisaishi, Debussy and Ravel. I was also heavily influenced by the harmony of Allan Holdsworth and Bill Evans. I am always elated when I get to mix my jazz background with orchestral music.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
When I started my job as an assistant, troubleshooting tech stuff was a challenge for me. Truth is, I wasn’t as savvy with tech as I claimed to be on my resume. The best way for me to learn was to just figure stuff out as I went along. It was essential for me to earn trust in the company in order to have the trajectory that I wanted. Overall, I’m happy to say the road to here has been smooth. I was lucky to have a good support system of friends and former classmates in LA when I made the move out.
Can you give our readers some background on the company you work for?
Emmy and BAFTA-nominated Bleeding Fingers Music, is a joint venture between Hans Zimmer’s RCI Global and Extreme Music, the production music arm of Sony/ATV. We have assembled an exceptional, sonically diverse composer roster, each selected for their unique and complementary skills, to create superlative original film and television scores. We believe that collaboration breeds innovation and working in an environment where the gifted are empowered to be adventurous, experimental, and creatively generous results in extraordinary music. It’s really inspiring being in a building of very experienced people who bring a lot of different talents to the plate. I learned how to adapt my writing style, develop professionalism, and come up with a good workflow in my time here, and I am still learning every day from my colleagues.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck definitely plays a role in everything, finding an opportunity in the first place is “lucky” because you’re in the right place at the right time. However, you have to put yourself in a position for such opportunities to come along, by being prepared and putting yourself out there, and being someone that people will want to work with.
Contact Info:
- Website: karatalve.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Sage Etters Photography, Caroline Wirawan Photography
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