Andy Hill (born 1951) is an American

music supervisor A music supervisor is a person who combines music and visual media. According to The Guild of Music Supervisors, a music supervisor is “a qualified professional who oversees all music related aspects of film, television, advertising, video games ...

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, and music educator. Under the name A.W. Hill, Hill has written three novels, ''Nowhere-Land'', ''The Last Days of Madame Rey'', and ''Enoch's Portal'', and a screenplay based on the life of

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
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Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, United States, and educated at New York University's

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

. From 1987 to 1996, during the period now referred to as the

Disney Renaissance The Disney Renaissance was the period from 1989 to 1999 during which Walt Disney Feature Animation returned to producing critically and commercially successful animated films that were mostly musical adaptations of well-known stories, much ...

, he served as vice-president of music production for

The Walt Disney Studios (division) The Walt Disney Studios is an American film and entertainment studio, and is the Studios Content segment of the Walt Disney Company. Based mainly at the namesake studio lot in Burbank, California, the studio is best known for its multifaceted ...

, overseeing music production on a roster of films which included ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...

'', ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...

'', and ''

Sister Act ''Sister Act'' is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Paul Rudnick (as Joseph Howard). It stars Whoopi Goldberg as a lounge singer forced to join a convent after being placed in a witness protection program. I ...

'', and working closely with composers and songwriters such as Alan Menken and

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...

. Films for which Hill supervised music under the aegis of the Disney music department and its music chief, Chris Montan, earned nine

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

in the categories of Best Original Score and

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

for a Motion Picture. Subsequent to his term at Disney, Hill opened ''Andy Hill Film + Music'' under the auspices of Modern Music and supervised projects which included ''Message In A Bottle'', ''Ed Wood'', ''James and the Giant Peach'' and ''Happy Feet'', winning a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

in 2000 as producer of the Best Musical Album for Children for ''Elmo In Grouchland''. From 2006 to 2011, Hill directed the graduate program in Music Composition for the Screen at Columbia College Chicago. His students have earned music credits on films such as ''Life of Pi'', ''How To Train Your Dragon'', and ''Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'' and found work with such notable composers as '' John Powell'', ''

Mychael Danna Mychael Danna (born September 20, 1958) is a Canadian composer of film and television scores. He won both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Original Score for '' Life of Pi''. He has also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition ...

'', ''

Jeff Danna Jeff Danna is an award-winning Canadian film composer. He has composed or co-composed scores for a wide range of films and television, including '' The Boondock Saints'' (1999), '' Resident Evil: Apocalypse'' (2004), '' Silent Hill'' (2006)'', Th ...

'', ''

Johnny Klimek Johnny Klimek (born 18 August 1962) is an Australian musician, music producer, and composer, best known for his innovative work in the underground electronica music scene and for his film scores. Life and career Klimek was born in Melbourn ...

'', and '' Javier Navarrete''. In the fall of 2011, Hill was engaged to prepare and oversee the launch of graduate composition programs at Berklee Valencia, the international extension of the Berklee College of Music, including film scoring and electronic music production, with classes commencing in September 2012. The campus is located in the Palau de les Arts, part of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies designed by visionary architect

Santiago Calatrava Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is a Spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter, particularly known for his bridges supported by single leaning pylons, and his railway stations, stadiums, and museums, whose sculp ...

in Valencia, Spain. Following matriculation of the first class of Berklee degree candidates and a pilot semester, he spent an additional six months in Spain and Morocco working on a portfolio of songs with an enigmatic producer known only as The Old Guitarist. In September 2013, Hill relocated to Belgium to take a post as executive soundtrack producer and director of international business development for

Galaxy Studios Galaxy Studios is a music recording, mixing, mastering and post-production facility established in 1980 by two brothers, Wilfried and Guy Van Baelen. It is the origin of Auro 3D sound technology, invented and developed by CEO Wilfried Van Bae ...

and the Scoring Flanders initiative, with the goal of bringing more high-level film scoring to the

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

region and the musical stewardship of the

Brussels Philharmonic The Brussels Philharmonic is a Belgian radio orchestra located in Brussels. Formerly known as the Groot Symfonie-Orkest, BRT Philharmonic Orchestra, and later as the Flemish Radio Orchestra, the orchestra has been linked to the Flemish public ...

. Concurrently, he launched Cinemuse VOF as a company under Belgian law, for music supervision and scoring services within the EU. In late 2015, Cinemuse, and Hill, relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where his principal activities were teaching, lecturing, and mentoring aspiring film composers through his Cinemuse Composer Coaching service. In 2019, he relocated to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he currently serves as dean of the Film Scoring Academy of Europe, a constituent college of the Irish American University in Dublin, and as director of its M.F.A. program in Music for Motion Pictures & Contemporary Media. Hill was from 2015 to 2018 a visiting lecturer and industry advisor to the Masters Program in Scoring for Film and Visual Media at Pulse College Dublin, a division of

Windmill Lane Studios Windmill Lane Recording Studios (earlier Windmill Lane Studios) is a recording studio in Dublin, Ireland. It was originally opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson and James Morris in premises at 22 Windmill Lane, and it subsequently relocated to its cu ...

, and a member of the advisory board for ''Pingtrax ( Musimap)'', a Belgian music search engine utilized by scholars, archivists, media producers and music supervisors. His comprehensive study of landmark film scores, ''Scoring the Screen: The Secret Language of Film Music'', was published in August 2017 by the

Hal Leonard Corporation Hal Leonard LLC (formerly Hal Leonard Corporation) is an American music publishing and distribution company founded in Winona, Minnesota, by Harold "Hal" Edstrom, his brother, Everett "Leonard" Edstrom, and fellow musician Roger Busdicker. Curre ...

. About the book,

Conrad Pope Conrad Pope is an American composer and orchestrator. He has worked on numerous films and has collaborated with composers such as John Williams, James Newton Howard, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, Mark Isham, James Horner, John Powell, Alexan ...

, celebrated orchestrator for John Williams,

Alexandre Desplat Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (; born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer and conductor. He has won many awards, including two Academy Awards, for his musical scores to the films '' The Grand Budapest Hotel'' and '' The Shape of Water'' ...

, and Howard Shore, among others said, "If you have any interest in what music ''means'' in film, you must read this book." The book has been selected as a core text by Leeds College and other institutions. In 2020, Hill received his PhD in Film Musicology from the

University of South Wales The University of South Wales ( cy, Prifysgol De Cymru) is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wa ...

. His dissertation was entitled BARDS OF THE SILVER SCREEN: Music and Meaning In Cinema.

A.W. Hill

Hill is also an

American writer American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry ...

of speculative fiction and mystery. He grew up in the Midwest but began writing under the influence of Southern California and has been linked by novelist/ essayist Alan Rifkin to the tradition of "California fabulist literature." Hill has published three literary thrillers featuring Los Angeles cult investigator Stephan Raszer (Stee-vun Ray-zer), a tracker of missing persons and an expert in emerging religions in the present age of neo- millennialism and conspiracy theory. Raszer's preoccupation, as well as his author's, is in "what draws otherwise rational people to believe in unbelievable things...and act upon them." With his son, Nathanael, he authored a YA novel of speculative science-fiction entitled ''The Switch'', published in 2017 by Curiosity Quills Press. His latest novel is ''Ministry'', described by its author as a "post-apocalyptic romance," and will be published in 2022 by TouchPoint Press. In 2003, Hill met Dorris Halsey, then 77, who had been literary agent for, among others,

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...

, and Ben Hecht. In Halsey and her younger partner and protégé, Kimberley Cameron, Hill found champions for both his fiction and his screenwriting work. Halsey introduced the writer to those in her circle, including Dr.

Mani Lal Bhaumik Mani Lal Bhaumik is an Indian American physicist and a bestselling author. Early life Mani Lal Bhaumik was born in a Bengali Mahishya family on March 30, 1931 in a small village in Tamluk, Medinipore, West Bengal, India and attended the Kol ...

, with whom Hill developed the memoir ''Code Name God'' and for whom he edited a primer on cosmology, ''The Cosmic Detective'', and Laura Huxley, with whom he briefly collaborated on a film adaptation of her late husband's novel, ''The Island''. Halsey died in 2006, and Cameron now helms the Reece Halsey Agency. He has also written feature articles for the L.A. Weekly and short fiction for

Susie Bright Susannah Bright (born March 25, 1958) is an American feminist, author, journalist, critic, editor, publisher, producer, and performer, often on the subject of politics and sexuality. She is the recipient of the 2017 Humanist Feminist Award, and ...

's ''Best American Erotica 2004'' and the Absinthe Literary Review, which awarded him its Eros & Thanatos prize for ''The Grotto.'' Hill is represented for motion picture projects by Steve Fisher at APA.

The Stephan Raszer Investigations

Written in a

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

style that pays homage equally to Raymond Chandler and

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...

, the Raszer Investigations are described by their author as "boundary explorations" that track the sometimes precarious path between faith and fraud, and between genuine mystical experience and madness. Using the detective genre as a foil for his metafiction, Hill employs his protagonist, Stephan Raszer, to probe a demimonde that oscillates between journalistic truth and high fantasy. Chandler scholar Judith Freeman, author of ''The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Women He Loved'', described Raszer in the L.A. Weekly as "the thinking person's private eye" and ''Nowhere-Land'', the third in the series, as "maybe the first truly 21st-century mystery I've read." Scottish crime author and Edgar Award winner

Ian Rankin Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a sch ...

(

Inspector Rebus The ''Inspector Rebus'' books are a series of detective novels by the Scottish author Sir Ian Rankin. The novels, centred on Detective Inspector John Rebus, are mostly based in and around Edinburgh. They are considered an important contrib ...

) described Hill's first novel this way: "Dollops of humor and horror and erotica, a good solid conspiracy, and a hero who is a

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

for the spiritually uncertain 21st century. Written like a thriller-ish

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, scie ...

or a literary

Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...

." Hill's first novel, ''Enoch's Portal'', was loosely based on the exploits of the infamous Order of the Solar Temple, a Franco-Swiss "suicide cult" and spiritual Ponzi scheme that claimed the legacy of the Knights Templar and fifty-three lives. Initially published in hardcover in 2001, ''Portal'' anticipated the phenomenon of ''The Da Vinci Code'' by finding grist for modern myth in the legend of The Priory of Sion. But where Dan Brown makes his revelations explicit, Hill's hero Raszer walks the mean streets of Los Angeles and Old Prague in a dense fog of deliberate, riddling, and for some critics, maddening obscurity. The book was read in manuscript by Caldecott Chubb at Alphaville, then optioned by Paramount Pictures and assigned to cult director

Alex Proyas Alexander Proyas (; Greek: Αλέξανδρος Πρόγιας; born 23 September 1963) is an Australian filmmaker of Greek descent. Proyas is best known for directing the films '' The Crow'' (1994), '' Dark City'' (1998), ''I, Robot'' (2004), ...

, who developed two scripts before abandoning it to make "I,Robot." Following a dispute with "Portal's" publisher over problems that had arisen from the Paramount deal, Hill was successful in reclaiming his ownership of the copyright. Five years later, Hill followed with the second installment of the Stephan Raszer series, ''The Last Days Of Madame Rey'', a

tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots ...

reading in the form of a mystery novel, or a mystery novel in the form of a tarot reading, with acknowledged literary debts to writers from Jules Verne to H. Rider Haggard to Jorge Borges to

Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian doctor of medicine and a psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author of several influential books, most ...

. The third installment in the series arrived in June 2009 with ''Nowhere-Land'', a Sufi legend mapped out as a role-playing game on the borderlands of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey in the imagined reality of a metastasizing Mideast war involving an

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

-like Islamist sect that traces its origins to Hassan-i Sabbah's Cult of the Assassins. ''Nowhere-Land's'' panoramic and eerily prophetic cast of characters also involves members of the

Yezidi Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...

sect and Kurdish

peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

fighters, as well as the chimerical CIA agent Philby Greenstreet, who provides critical assistance to Raszer's mission.

Published works

* ''Nowhere-Land'' (Counterpoint 2009) * ''The Last Days Of Madame Rey'' (Carroll & Graf 2006) * ''Enoch's Portal'' (Champion Press 2002) * ''Scoring The Screen: The Secret Language of Film Music'' (Hal Leonard Publishing, Spring 2017)

Short stories

* China Lake (2009) * The Org (2009) * Death and the Plumber (2004) * The Swami and the Savant (2005) * The Grotto (2004) * The Conductor (2003)

Screenplays

* ''Tesla'' * ''Little Red Book''

References

External links

*
Scoring The ScreenAuthor WebsiteMention in Variety
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Andy 1951 births Living people 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American film score composers American male novelists American music educators American mystery writers Columbia College Chicago faculty Tisch School of the Arts alumni American male short story writers Record producers from Illinois Novelists from Illinois 21st-century American male writers