Edwin Wendler


Edwin Wendler is an Austrian composer working in Los Angeles, California.

Biography

Born into a musical family, Wendler attended the Vienna Choir Boys from 1985 until 1989, participating in four tours around the globe, singing in more than 500 concerts and opera performances, sharing stages with José Carreras, Agnes Baltsa, and Alfredo Kraus, and working with conductors such as Colin Davis and Horst Stein. After his voice changed, Wendler attended the :de:Öffentliches Gymnasium der Stiftung Theresianische Akademie|Theresianische Akademie, from which he graduated with honors, in 1993.
Wendler's passion for film music started at around the age of 10, and by the time he graduated from high school, his collection of soundtrack CD's exceeded 1500. From 1996 until 1998, Wendler wrote, directed, and scored several award-winning short films for the Austrian independent film company, Magellan-Film. His work was showcased at several independent, local and international film festivals, including the :de:UNICA|UNICA Festival.
Wendler earned certificates in film scoring and screenwriting from UCLA Extension in 1999. His first concert commission arrived that same year from the University of Ottawa and its choral director, Laurence Ewashko. The resulting piece, Consolatio, for choir and symphony orchestra, received a standing ovation at its premiere at St. Joseph's Church, Ottawa, and was subsequently broadcast on local Canadian television stations. In 2004, the piece was performed at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, by the Stockport Youth Orchestra and five combined choirs from the area. Philip Mackenzie conducted.
After composing music for dozens of short films, Wendler landed his first feature film when writer/director Temi Lopez hired him to score his 2001 movie, ', starring Richard Beymer and Grace Zabriskie.
In 2003, Wendler scored ’s ambitious comedy short film, '. Collaborators on this project: London Metropolitan Orchestra, legendary recording engineer , and Academy Award-nominated scoring mixer .
In 2004, Wendler was accepted into the prestigious ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, which concluded with a recording session at 20th Century Fox’s Newman Scoring Stage, with famed scoring mixer Armin Steiner and the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra.
Also in 2004, film composer Paul Haslinger asked Wendler to join his team as an arranger, orchestrator, and music programmer, resulting in work on the movies Into the Blue, Turistas, ', and Gardener of Eden, as well as the second season of the Showtime series, Sleeper Cell. During this time, Wendler also wrote additional music for the NBC reality series, Fear Factor.
In 2007, Wendler was hired to score the internet series, ', and in late 2008 / early 2009, he wrote the music for the U.S. version of the film, Broken Angel.
In November 2009, artistic director and conductor Christopher McCafferty commissioned a piece for a cappella choir from Edwin Wendler. The premiered the resulting ' at its inaugural concerts on December 19 and 20, 2009, in the Seattle area. Illumni commissioned several other pieces from Mr. Wendler during subsequent years.
Producer hired Edwin Wendler for four stylistically diverse feature film scores: Christmas with a Capital C, The Mark, Escape, and '. Perseverance Records released a soundtrack album for Escape to generally positive reviews.
In 2010, Mr. Wendler received arranging credit on the comedy feature, Little Fockers, which was scored by composer Stephen Trask. Trask hired Wendler again for the Miley Cyrus-starring comedy, So Undercover.
Composer John Ottman credited Edwin Wendler as orchestrator on the 2010 action movie, The Losers, and subsequently as an arranger and MIDI programmer on the thrillers The Resident and Unknown, as well as on the 2014 summer blockbuster, '.
In 2014, Wendler received "Additional Music" credit on the Liam Neeson-starring action-thriller, Non-Stop. In an audio interview with the German radio show Cinema World, John Ottman mentioned that Mr. Wendler wrote "a large chunk" of the Non-Stop score.
Also in 2014, Mr. Wendler's score for the documentary, ', was nominated for a GoldSpirit Award.

Discography

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