Testimonials

Hollywood Music Workshop took place in USA for the first time in 2024.
Please find below glowing student testimonials about Hollywood Music Workshop EUROPE from the years 2009 – 2023 
and our first reviews from 2024 – USA !
We congratulate our former participants for their continued progress in pursuing their successful & rewarding careers.

 

Mohamed Navara/ HMW USA 2024

Had the pleasure to attend two very advanced workshops in Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.. One in Film Music Composition by the mega star composer and 15 times Academy Awards (Oscars) nominee Thomas Newman (James Bond- Sky Fall, Finding Nemo, The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, Meet Joe Black).
 
The other workshop in Orchestration and Arranging by the master of orchestration in hollywood the one and only Conrad Pope (Harry Potter, Night at the Museum, Godzilla, Polar Express, Jurassic Park, The Matrix) and his amazing wife Nan Schwartz who is a Grammy Awards Winner and a seven-time Emmy Awards Nominee 😍😍😍
 
Thanks a lot Hollywood Music Workshop Dimitrie Leivici for the amazing efforts to make these workshops so memorable 🙏

Francoise Bogaert / HMW USA 2024

I still don’t understand how lucky I was to have spent the last week with those two legends for the Hollywood Music Workshop in Malibu.
Nan Schwartz is the most talented arranger I ever met. His music is just moving and poetic. I learned a lot from you and I will follow your work in the future.

Conrad Pope is a true Hollywood legend. He was orchestrator for the soundtrack of Harry Potter 1,2,3,7, the Star Wars series, X-men, Polar Express, l’Age de glace, Maman j’ai raté l’avion, Jurassic Park… and so many more. He works with Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Alexandre Desplat, James Horner…

They shared their secrets of orchestration and arrangements with so much kindness and great professionalism. I learned a lot from them and it will change my works as arranger and orchestrator.
Thank you to Dimitrie Leivici and Joanne for making this event possible !
C’était amaaaaazing comme ils disent ! 😍😍

Yu Hsin Li / HMW USA 2024

There were several times I felt my heartbeat gonna stop and couldn’t breathe! It was excited and truly incredible. Thank you to the @hollywoodmusicworkshopacademy for giving composers from around the world the opportunity to learn from Thomas Newman, the composer of ”Elemental“ and ”WALL-E,“ and for his valuable feedback on our musical works. I really love LA because of this experience!

 

好幾次在這堂課上快要無法呼吸！！！真是太難以置信，感謝 Hollywood Music Workshop 讓來自世界各地的作曲家們有機會向《Elemental元素方程式》和《WALL-E瓦力》的好萊塢大作曲家Thomas Newman 學習並切獲得他對我們音樂作品的寶貴建議，真的會很愛LA這個地方，這照片我之後一定要洗出來裱框掛牆上。

Markus Illko

Hollywood Music Workshop and all its associates would like to congratulate one of our graduates and participants MARKUS ILLKO from Austria together with his group The String Revolution to their well-earned GRAMMY AWARD 2024 !

We are sure that Markus will have a stellar career in his chosen musical genre and this reward will propel him to even bigger heights as an artist!

His tremendous success proves again, that if you believe in yourself and work hard, the sky is the limit! Congratulations!”
Ashton Gleckman
“… Ashton’s work has been recognized by Academy Award-winning director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), who shared one of Ashton’s videos on his social media accounts, and composer Danny Elfman, who shared his Behind the Score episode for Edward Scissorhands on his social media accounts. In Winter 2021/2022, Ashton’s rendition of Elfman’s theme, Ice Dance, reached number one on the most downloaded and widely used social media apps – TikTok, bringing in more than 170 million views and 400,000 track uses.”

More about Ashton Gleckman

CONGRATULATIONS
from Hollywood Music Workshop and all its associates  to our former student Ashton Gleckman for his remarkable success as a composer & filmmaker !

Robert Wolf

Ralf Lichtenberg

Roman Kariolou

Roman Kariolou, composer of scores for over 100  Film & TV-Productions,a.o. for the EMMY nominated documentaries Operation Stonehenge (BBC, 2014), Africa’s Wild West (National Geographic, 2015) and Vanishing Kings (Smithsonian, 2017 & the score for “Maria Theresia” & “Vienna Blood”.

Tuomas Nikkinen

Hollywood Music Workshop wishes to sincerely congratulate our alumnus, Tuomas Nikkinen, for receiving the “Best Music” Tiantan Award at the 11th Beijing International Film Festival.

The recognition is for the feature “Any Day Now” (2020). We’d also like to congratulate two of our former participants, Mikki Rousi, who played guitar on the soundtrack, and Nick Bulavin, who helped with the arrangements. We’re delighted to have played some part in your musical journey ! Heartfelt congratulations from the HMW team !

Lorenzo Ferrari

CONGRATULATIONS to our former alumnni Lorenzo Ferrari to his well earned Latin GRAMMY AWARD! Hollywood Music Workshop and its associates are wishing him  continued success for his outstanding career !

Students about HMW 2023

(Italian lang.)

(Finnish.lang.)

Students about HMW 2022

ARIO ( ITALY ) about
LIVE Recording

PERTTU  ( FINLAND ) about
Orchestration & Arranging

SULWYN  ( SINGAPORE ) about
Conrad Pope & Oscar Senén

Raffaele ( ITALY ) about
Hollywood Music Workshop

CHRISTOPH ( AUSTRIA ) about
Composers’ Conducting Immersion

JAZREEL  ( SINGAPORE ) about
Orchestration & Arranging

PASIT ( THAILAND ) about
LIVE Recording

WOUTER  ( BELGIUM ) about
Orchestration & Arranging ( dutch lang.)

SULWYN  ( SINGAPORE ) about
Nan Schwartz & John Lunn

Luca De Matteis ( ITALY )

“My first experience in conducting was one of the most intense experiences of my life. I lived moments that made me fully understand the value of playing together and sharing music.
Music is indeed made up of notes, pauses, breaths… but it is also made up of glances, encounters, dialogues. It is all a continuous exchange with a single purpose: to excite and get excited. It’s amazing how much you can learn in just three days.
Our great teacher Maestra Amy Andersson, with her kindness, affection and professionalism managed to bring out the best in us, and I will never be grateful enough for this. Thanks to her, I discovered my strong interest in conducting, which is something I will never abandon from now on. All made even more incredible by the amazing people I got to know, from colleagues to the organizers of this journey, powerful people I hope to meet again.

Thank you, Hollywood Music Workshop, for the enormous possibility. You have been able to make a course of just a few days an unforgettable experience.”

– Luca De Matteis / ITALY
about “Composers’ Conducting Immersion”

Testimonials 2009-2021

TESTIMONIALS

FROM OUR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

FROM USA

“Having a great time attending the Hollywood Music Workshop in Baden, Austria, for the second year in a row. Last week I had the privilege to meet and learn from legendary game composer GARRY SCHYMAN (composer of Bioshock) and this week with the great JOHN LUNN (composer of Downton Abbey). It’s really just incredible to be here, to meet and get to know other composers, and to study with experienced and accomplished professionals in the industry.”

– Keith Ramsey

FROM FINLAND

“Tomorrow will be the last day of Hollywood Music Workshop in Austria and oh boy what a week has it been. There’s a crazy amount of information to be processed and soooo much new stuff to learn. The boost of inspiration is unreal. ”

– Mikki Rousi

FROM PERU

“I’ve never felt so inspired before!
Thanks to each and everyone who participated
in this beautiful gathering of talent and music. ”

– Lorenzo Ferrero

FROM COSTA RICA

Thank you Conrad Pope for all your wisdom during these invaluable weeks!

Martino Scovacricchi

FROM GERMANY

“There aren’t many workshops led by real professionels who still stay on the ground, support their students and give you the feeling that everything is possible. The HMW is the best I’ve ever been at.”

– Leon Stanek

FROM INDONESIA

“GREAT WORKSHOP with JOE KRAEMER.
Awesome music and person!!”

– Mulya Sari Dewi 

FROM FINLAND

 

“Very diverse group of people ranging from newly-budding composers to hardcore professional composers coming together as peers in order to learn about tools of video composing from an industry legend!”


– Mikko Aaltio

FROM USA

” I’ve been doing music for a very long time.
But there’s so many things !’ve been taking away
from the HMW class that I’m never gonna forget !”

– Chad Lawson

FROM SPAIN

“Amazing composers JOE KRAEMER
(“Mission Impossible”)
and JOHN LUNN (“Downton Abbey”) !

What a great company!!!”

– Vanessa Garde 

FROM GERMANY

“Orchestration & Arranging with CONRAD POPE & NAN SCHWARTZ was the first hybrid class – with a presence in the class room in Baden and people on Zoom. The HMW-team did an amazing job to combine the two into one seamless experience. We on Zoom felt like being there. It still can’t replace the real face to face experience & all the amazing networking and discussions that happen in breaks and after class, but it got very close. Could not have been any better! Kudos to the team for this amazing job!

– Colja Boennemann 

FROM FINLAND

 

“Taking a course on video game composing with Garry Schyman (Bioshock, Dante’s Inferno) via Zoom.
Due to Pandemic, taking a class from a top pro from your own computer is extremely convenient! ”

– Pessi Levanto

FROM GREAT BRITAIN

Off to North Wales
after two fantastic weeks with film music!

– Alex Palmer

FROM MEXICO

“The best experience
I’ve had in many years….”

– Jorge Estrada

FROM GERMANY

“If I should describe this workshop in
three words it would probably be this:

Inspiring, Incredible, Irresistable ! “

– Mai Ba

FROM ITALY

“I am so fortunate
being able to be part of this !”

– Francesco Basso

FROM FRANCE


“I think you guys have put together
something very special here.”
– Mathieu Karsenti

FROM PHILIPPINES

“The entire HMW experience is one for the books: Recorded my HMW final project early this morning with a bunch of extremely talented chamber musicians. And a TV crew was there to cover my recording session. Flying to Manila tomorrow. Leaving Klosterneuburg with film music in my blood… for life.”

– Von De Guzman

FROM NEW ZEALAND

“Thanks so much. And again thank you and Dimitrie for your amazing work – it is a true gift you have given us all! I very much hope there will be many more exciting learning experiences ahead.”

– Tom McLeod

FROM BRAZIL

“Two exceptional weeks learning a lot about orchestration and composition of film music with Conrad Pope. Very grateful to the organizers, Dimitrie Leivici, Lilo Bellotto and the friends that I met there.”

– Eduardo Virgilio

FROM INDONESIA

 “Thank you so much for these 2 great weeks of your workshop! I learned a lot of techniques in orchestrating, composing and the music business.”

– Asri Dewi Lestari

FROM SWITZERLAND

“A BIG THANK YOU for your time and your passion! You are awesome! I spent two very special weeks ! Hope to see you again, soon. Big Hug!”

– Victor Hugo Fumagalli

FROM GERMANY

“The atmosphere was very motivating, an excellent mix of suspense and relaxation. A lot of valuable working tools, how sound and picture are combined in Hollywood productions, but also apply to German productions. ”

– Jens Schliecker

FROM AUSTRIA

“This is one of the best workshops in the world. Because wonderful teachers support all levels of students in a gentle and great way, it’s a winning situation for everybody! Great!”

– Marcus Haider