NASHVILLE (CelebrityAccess) – The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) and Electronic Arts Music (EA) have awarded Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning composer Bear McCreary with the 2024 Music Maestro Award, a prestigious honor that is given annually to music creators who have made significant contributions in the advancement of Nashville’s media scoring industry.
SCL President Ashley Irwin presented the award to McCreary on September 28 during the 3rd annual SCL Nashville Music Creator’s Conference at a special reception hosted by SCL and EA at Ocean Way Nashville Studios. McCreary is known for his incredible work creating music for series such as Outlander, The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the video games God of War, God of War Ragnarök, Call of Duty: Vanguard, and more. He is also a two-time winner of the British Academy Games Award for Music and the D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition. Previous recipients of the Music Maestro Award have included composers Gordy Haab, Stephen Barton, and Pinar Toprak.
The three-day conference held September 27-29 was a convergence of some of the world’s most illustrious composers and songwriters, up-and-coming creators, and top executives from across music, film, TV, and games industries. Highlights of the events dedicated to celebrating music for visual media and education included panel discussions with renowned composers Ryan Lott of Son Lux, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Rob Simonsen, and Gabriel Mann, who shared insight into their craft, careers, and stories behind the making of their most recent scores.
On Day One of the conference, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) hosted “Composer Conversations” at their Nashville office on Music Row, with three panels including an insightful discussion between an Academy Award-nominated and SCL Award-winning composer Lott (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and moderator Tracy McKnight, Vice President of Creative, Film, TV and Visual Media of BMI. SCL President Irwin moderated a panel with Emmy Award-winner composer Rivera – who has been celebrated for his success with scores for hit series such as The Queen’s Gambit and Lessons In Chemistry. McKnight also moderated a panel with Simonsen, a three-time Emmy Award-winning composer whose credits include major films such as The Whale, 500 Days of Summer, It Ends with Us, and Deadpool and Wolverine, the highest-grossing film of 2024. Simonsen offered a behind-the-scenes look at his score for the blockbuster, as well as creating a new arrangement of Madonna’s iconic song “Like a Prayer – Choir Version from Deadpool & Wolverine” which is featured in a key moment of the film.
