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Christopher Lennertz Residência: United States of America Site oficial: Christopher Lennertz @ christopherlennertz.com |
Emmy nominated for his score to the hit WB series “Supernatural” at The 58th Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Christopher Lennertz has accomplished more at age 34 than many film composers do in a lifetime. The young composer has scored more than 23 feature films, four network television series, and has spent weeks on the Billboard top 100 charts. He has studied with some of history’s finest masters in the art of film scoring and lent his music to the dramatic performance of both Emmy and Academy Award winners.
Christopher Lennertz was born in a small town north of Boston, in the same area as one of his heroes, famed American composer Leonard Bernstein. He then moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he began his musical training at age 9. He quickly began developing what “Saint Sinner” director Joshua Butler calls “an incredible gift for melody.” After studying composition, jazz arranging, and theory in high school, Lennertz moved to California to study music at USC’s Thornton School of Music with film music luminaries such as Elmer Bernstein, Buddy Baker, Christopher Young, and David Raksin. It was at the University of Southern California where his relationship with “Supernatural” creator and executive producer Kripke began. With Kripke directing and Lennertz composing, they collaborated on two short films, “Truly Committed,” which won the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, and “Battle of the Sexes,” starring Sasha Alexander.
Upon graduation from the famed film school, Lennertz began his professional career writing a host of independent film scores spanning all musical and dramatic styles. Early on, he dove into a multitude of genres and styles. These ranged from the jazz-based gangster film, “Baby Face Nelson,” featuring Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham, to the youthful comedy “Freshman” from Artisan Entertainment. Accolades followed with his films making their premieres and winning awards at the world’s most prestigious film festivals: Sundance, Slamdance, HBO’s Comedy Arts Festival, Toronto, and Cannes.
Lennertz has developed an extensive repertoire as a composer for all types of media, from film to television and even to videogames. While maintaining a presence scoring independent films he ventured into the world of big budget studio features. He has contributed his orchestrations, arranging, and conducting experience to such hits as “Frailty,” “Panic,” “Free Willy II,” “The Jungle Book” and “Disney’s 101 Dalmatians.” His soundtrack for Clive Barker’s “Saint Sinner” was one of Cinescape’s top 15 releases of 2002 and was rated in the top ten by Film Music Review. Showing true versatility, he collaborated with RZA of Wu Tang Clan for the hit comedy “Soul Plane.” Most recently, he scored the thriller “The Deal,” starring Christian Slater and Selma Blair; “Sledge: The Untold Story,” a mockumentary featuring Angelina Jolie; the Latin comedy “Tortilla Heaven,” He is currently working on the sports parody comedy “The Comebacks,” and “Perfect Christmas,” a family romance starring Terrence Howard, Queen Latifah and Gabrielle Union.
Joining his Emmy nominated work for Eric Kripke’s cult science fiction hit “Supernatural” in an increasingly long list of credits, Lennertz also scored the cult Fox TV series, “Brimstone,” and the Warner Brother’s show “The Strip,” produced by the legendary Joel Silver (“Die-Hard,” “The Matrix”). His theme song for the MTV series “Tough Enough” appeared on the soundtrack for the popular show and put him on the Billboard top 100 charts for weeks. Providing orchestrations for the City of Prague orchestra, Lennertz’ work helped the Ozomatli album, Street Signs, win the Grammy award for best Latin Rock album of the year. He invited Ozomatli to collaborate on “Tortilla Heaven.”
Lennertz’ first foray into videogames for the Stephen Spielberg-created videogame “Medal of Honor: Rising Sun” became an historical first. It marked the first time the famed Hollywood Studio Orchestra, which performs on all major film scores, had performed on a score to a videogame. His powerful, full orchestral score earned the Interactive Academy Award for best original music of 2003 from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and led him to score two more “Medal of Honor” games. Most recently, he completed the scores to the popular games “James Bond 007: From Russia with Love” and “Gun.”
Christopher Lennertz currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.