Private Film Scoring Lesson Scheduling

Vivian Aguiar-Buff is a Film/TV Composer, Music Editor, and Emmy Award-winning Music Supervisor, originally from São Paulo, Brazil. She works as Director Of Music at DreamWorks Animation.

Vivian founded her film scoring/music supervision studio - 1M1 Arte - composing award-winning scores for several Brazilian blockbusters and international feature films, TV series, and other audiovisual projects. She also worked as an independent Music Editor/Additional Writer in the Los Angeles film industry. She gained experience working at Remote Control Productions collaborating on many scores such as "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," "Captain Phillips," and Academy Award-winning "Big Hero 6" among many others.

She graduated in Film from the Brazilian college FAAP, and in Composition/Film Scoring and Conducting from Berklee College of Music.

"My goal is to pass on as much information as possible, so that the student feels confident and ready to embark on their professional journey. My priority is to transfer on the experience I’ve acquired working in the LA film industry, basing every lecture and assignment in real life situations."

Esin Aydingoz is a media composer hailing from Istanbul, Turkey and the former Assistant Chair of Berklee College of Music's Screen Scoring Department. She has recently been nominated for a Grammy Award for her arrangement of "Paint It Black" from Tim Burton's hit Netflix series, Wednesday and toured all across the United States with Disney Pixar's Coco in Concert as a conductor and music director. She has composed for a wide array of projects including film, TV, video games, and musicals. Her score for her first feature film, Simchas and Sorrows got her the "David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent" nomination by The Society of Composers and Lyricists. She has written additional music on Apple TV's SEE starring Jason Momoa, Netflix's Princess Power & The Witcher: Blood Origin and Hallmark's One Summer & Presence of Love. Other career highlights were Amazon Prime’s The Prevalence, Kino Lorber's Cinema's First Nasty Women series, a branded documentary for US Bank, and her recent feature documentary, Black Barbie, which premiered at SXSW in March 2023. Her music for The Monster of the Desert, Noor, and Dog Days have all brought her several "Best Score" awards. A voting member for The Recording Academy, a board member for The Society of Composers and Lyricists, a mentor for Sound Thinking NYC, and the secretary for The Alliance for Women Film Composers, Esin truly strives to make the world a better place through the arts.

"When I was a student, the professors that inspired me the most were always the ones who gave me freedom to explore, found entertaining and memorable ways to teach artistic and technological concepts, celebrated my strengths while always being honest with my weaknesses, and cared about me as a person - so this has also become my approach to teaching. I see my students as future friends and collaborators and enjoy witnessing their growth and being a part of their journey from the beginning."

Andreas Bjørck is a US-based composer, producer and remix artist, originally from Norway. As a composer, Andreas has specialized in scoring documentaries for film and television. He has also written music for a wide variety of short films, and commercials and branding campaigns for international clients such as Hewlett Packard, Kate Spade, and W Hotels, among others. Some of his most recent work includes the documentaries "Addiction" and "The Gene Doctors" for PBS/NOVA. As a producer, his credits include producing and mixing tracks for indie-electronic artist Caroline (Temporary Residence Ltd.), J-Pop duo Island Bag (Avex Group Japan), NYC-based indie band Measure, remixing tracks for electronic artist Kodomo, as well as co-producing and mixing multiple albums for the internationally renowned composer and pianist Marika Takeuchi.

Andreas is a graduate of Berklee College of Music, with a degree in Film Scoring and Electronic Production and Design. He is a former staff composer, sound designer and engineer Verité Music, the premier commercial music house in Boston. He also currently serves on the faculty of the Film Scoring department at Berklee College of Music.

"In my teaching, I try to instill in my students the idea that the technology - and the DAW in particular - is an expressive musical instrumnt in itself, rather than just a tool of implementation. I place great emphasis on the role of film music as a tool for telling stories, and explore with my students the many ways in which music technology has always informed and shaped the language of film music and story-telling - and how the stories we tell in film and TV have at the same time helped drive innovations in music technology."

Jessica Rae Huber is a film and television composer who has written music for projects such as The Walking Dead, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Outlander, Black Sails, 60 Days In, and Constantine. She spends her time on a variety of projects such as scoring feature films, scoring short films, scoring television shows, and writing library and trailer music. She is also frequently recruited to write additional music for other composers across many genres and types of media.

She previously worked as an Assistant Composer and Scoring Manager for a major film music production company where she hired and managed a large team, coordinated multiple simultaneous scoring projects, and wrote additional music for many television shows. She has since become a highly sought-after consultant who has recruited, built, and maintained scoring teams and workflows for multiple composers.

Jessica is one of the original composers chosen for The Future Is Female: a Concert for Women in Film where she conducted her original orchestral piece for a sold-out crowd.

She holds a degree in film and video game scoring from Berklee College of Music, and a degree from Florida Atlantic University in Communications, Women's Studies, and History.

"When I am teaching, helping, or mentoring someone, I like to treat it as a conversation where we explore together. I love learning from my students as well as passing on the knowledge I have gained, quite often, through making mistakes in my own career. If I can save anyone from the pain and suffering caused by lack of preparation for a competitive career I feel I have done my job. 

The actual writing of music is only one small slice of a thriving media scoring career. It is also a challenge to work for clients who have the final creative say over your music. Having your business and workflows well-organized is essential to being able to enjoy the fun and fulfilling part of our career: writing the music! I get excited to share the information, tricks, and shortcuts I have learned during my time in the industry to help students set themselves up for success."

Tim Huling is an award-winning composer, orchestrator and producer of music for film, TV, video games, and the concert hall. Credits include contributing original music to the Counter Strike: Global Offensive "Masterminds" music kit; composing and producing music for live shows such as "Origins: Life and the Universe," a live-orchestra with projected-film event, and the upcoming latin-jazz album and live show, "Celebrate Dance;" composition of underscore for the TV Show "Little People, Big World" (additional music); and orchestrating for the film "Mad Money," starring Queen Latifa, Katie Holmes, and Diane Keaton.  

Tim attended Berklee College of Music and was a Film Scoring Major ('98, magna cum laude). Tim has been teaching composition, orchestration, and music technology for over 20 years and was proud to return to Berklee as a faculty member in 2014.

"My teaching is guided by three goals: prepare students to collaborate with the community of professional artists working in their chosen multi-media field, help students become musical dramatists, and guide students in their process of self-discovery as an artist."

Sean McMahon is best know for his score to “The Grudge III,” produced by “Spider-Man 3” director, Sam Raimi, and “400 Days,” written and directed by rising star, Matt Osterman, that starred Dane Cook, Brandon Routh (“Superman Returns”), Caity Lotz (Arrow), Ben Feldman (Mad Men) and Tom Cavanaugh (“The Flash”).

McMahon hails from Toronto, Canada, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music. He has also completed the University of Southern California’s (USC) Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program in Los Angeles.

After his studies at USC, McMahon remained in Los Angeles to work for veteran Hollywood film composer and Golden Globe nominee, Christopher Young (“The Shipping News,” “Swordfish,” “Runaway Jury”). McMahon assisted Young in several roles including project manager and lead orchestrator. Their work together includes such films as “Spider-Man 3,” “The Grudge,” “Ghost Rider,” “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas,” and dozens more. He has also orchestrated for Oscar-winner, John Ottman, on films such as “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and “The Invasion.” Additionally, McMahon has written additional music for Sony/Columbia, 20th Century FOX, and Dreamworks pictures.

He has scored a number of video games such as "Jump Dewds!" and "Strata" (published on Steam) for game developer Graveck Interactive, based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

McMahon has been commissioned twice by the American Composers Forum to speak at national composer conferences on Hollywood film music and video game music. In 2013 McMahon shared the stage with game composing titans Lennie Moore ("Halo: The Master Chief Collection," "Star Wars: The Old Republic," "Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring") and Jason Graves (“Dead Space,” “Tomb Raider”) for a game music conference called “Game On!”

I believe to succeed as a film composer in today's industry, curriculum should lie at the interaction of creativity, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Joey Newman is an Emmy-nominated, third generation film and television composer of the famed Hollywood musical Newman dynasty. Joey’s grandfather is Oscar-winning composer and conductor Lionel Newman, and his great uncle is nine-time Oscar-winner Alfred Newman. His cousins Randy, Thomas, David and Maria Newman are all successful composers. Joey’s father, Joe Frank Carollo, played bass and sang in the famed 1970’s rock group "Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds”. A drummer, conductor and orchestrator, Joey earned his degree from the Berklee College of Music. He got his start working in television, co-composing with Emmy®-winning composer W.G. “Snuffy” Walden. Joey has composed the music to award-winning feature films, numerous television series, video games and provided arrangements for recording artists like Rufus Wainwright and Broadway composers Marcy & Zina and Cinco Paul. As a conductor and orchestrator, Joey has worked across the media spectrum including orchestrating for his cousin Randy, Bill Ross and conducting alongside Michael Tilson Thomas and John Williams.

"My teaching philosophy is not much different than the way I approach any creative endeavor - collaboration, communication and musical discovery. I want to prepare the aspiring composer for the real world with a focus on learning how we got here, what we are currently doing and what the future may look like.  Through a mixture of experience, mindfulness and musical knowledge, I hope to guide my students in discovering their unique musical voice, talents and interests."

Award winning composer George Oldziey got his first big introduction into the world of film scoring when he joined forces with film director Robert Rodriguez to create the score for Spy Kids 2 and has since served as composer, contributing composer, orchestrator and score producer for other feature films such as Spy Kids 3D, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Kill Bill, Volume 2, Sin City, Grindhouse - Planet Terror, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Shorts and Sin City; A Dame to Kill For and the Christmas 2020 Netflix release We Can Be Heroes.

"Everyone brings their own gifts to this world, and I am not one to put my own stamp on what my students achieve but to help them find the art within themselves and bring it forward for the rest of the world to enjoy."

When Alison Plante was appointed Chair of the Film Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music she became the first female chair of a collegiate film scoring department, before moving on to head up the online program. Her scoring credits range from documentaries for PBS and the History Channel to national television ads, independent films, live action and animated shorts, theater, and multimedia museum installations for the Smithsonian Institution and the Harvard Museum of Natural History. She is also the founder of her scoring business, Treble Cove Music.

Plante’s composition honors include the Janet Gates Peckham International Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize. 

A native of Concord, Massachusetts, Plante studied at the University of Chicago and the University of Cambridge. She also plays keyboard and wind instruments; performed for three years in a gamelan, a traditional ensemble of Indonesia; and has conducted for both orchestra and choir.

Film Scoring is all about collaboration, so I treat my students as collaborators in their own learning. I'm not there to tell them what to do and not to do, but to enable them to see their work from a different perspective and come to their own conclusions. This allows them to grow into lifelong learners and self-teachers, which is crucial for long-term success in music.