Dan Radlauer (born April 26, 1957 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

) is an American film and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

composer, who was born in

and grew up in the eastern suburb of

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

La Habra Heights La Habra Heights is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2010 census, down from 5,712 at the 2000 census. La Habra Heights is a suburban canyon community located on the border of Orange and Lo ...

. Radlauer is the recipient of four BMI composer awards and has received special recognition at independent film festivals.

Early life, musical training, early successes

Dan Redlaurer was raised in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

(Southeastern range of the

Puente Hills The Puente Hills are a chain of hills, one of the lower Transverse Ranges, in an unincorporated area in eastern Los Angeles County, California, in the United States. The western end of the range is often referred to locally as the Whittier Hills. ...

). He started playing music at the age of 8 with

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

and later learned

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gu ...

, accordion and various other

stringed instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...

s. Great inspiration came from his parents Ed and Ruth Radlauer, who are well known book authors. The advanced musical training he received was while attending school in the music department at

Fullerton College Fullerton College (FC) is a public community college in Fullerton, California. The college is part of the California Community Colleges System and the North Orange County Community College District. Established in 1913, it is the oldest commu ...

in the late 1970s, playing and writing for their jazz and pop groups. During this time he also studied with film composer Albert Harris. Radlauer's big-band composition " Straight Tone and Strive Ahead" is the opening track of the

Jazz Band 1983

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Ch ...

Award-winning LP ''

Time Tripping ''Time Tripping'' is an album (LP Vinyl) released by the Fullerton College Jazz Band for the Discovery Records Trend AM-PM label, it became the Down Beat Magazine 1st Place Award Winner in the College Big Band Jazz category for 1983. Background ...

''. Radlauer also did notable writing for the big bands Maiden Voyage, the Big Band Jazz Machine, and publisher C.L. Barnhouse. His first 15 years of professional composing were in the area of TV and radio

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

; companies worked for include

Coke Coke usually refers to: * Coca-Cola, a brand of soft drink **The Coca-Cola Company * Slang term for cocaine, a psychoactive substance and illicit drug Substances Soft drinks * Cola, any soft drink similar to Coca-Cola * Generic name for a soft d ...

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

, Nissan, Greenlight Financial,

Albertsons Albertsons Companies, Inc. is an American grocery company founded and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-large ...

, and

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

. He has worked in the R&B and pop music fields recording with stars such as

Teena Marie Mary Christine Brockert (March 5, 1956 – December 26, 2010), known professionally as Teena Marie, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, composer, arranger, and producer. She was known by her childhood nickname Tina before taking the sta ...

and co-produced the original ''TV's Greatest Hits'' CD.

TV and film scoring

By 2001 Radlauer started to be contracted much more for music scoring in the television and film industry doing feature length work. He has composed music for numerous

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

, drama, and

sitcom A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...

shows to include ''

For the Love of Ray J ''For the Love of Ray J'' is a dating show on VH1 featuring hip hop singer Ray J. The program has a format similar to ''Flavor of Love'', ''I Love New York'', and ''Rock of Love ''Rock of Love with Bret Michaels'' is an American reality televi ...

'', ''Ruby'', ''

Flavor of Love ''Flavor of Love'' is an American reality television dating game show starring Flavor Flav of the rap group Public Enemy. While not a direct spin-off, the show was a result of Brigitte Nielsen and Flavor Flav's failed relationship on '' Stran ...

'', and ''

The Surreal Life ''The Surreal Life'' is an American reality television series that records a group of celebrities as they live together in Glen Campbell's former mansion in the Hollywood Hills for two weeks. The format of the show resembles that of '' The Real ...

''. He was a contributing writer working with

Randy Edelman Randy Edelman (born June 10, 1947) is an American musician, producer, and composer for film and television. He began his career as a member of Broadway's pit orchestras, and later went on to produce solo albums for songs that were picked up by ...

on the 2008 action adventure film '' The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor''. Other titles he has also scored as independent, feature-length movies, and documentaries include ''The Reflecting Pool'' (2008), ''Bad Guys'', ''Salvation'' (2007), ''Pip and Zastro'' (2006), ''She Wolves of the Wasteland'' (1987), ''Phoenix the Warrior'' (1988), and ''Thunder Geniuses''.Internet Movie Data Base movie credits
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Music education, teaching

As an educator, Radlauer worked at the Idyllwild Arts Academy and at the PS#1 Elementary School in Santa Monica as well as creating music ensembles at New West Middle School in Los Angeles and Pali High School. He has been adjudicating jazz festivals for over 20 years, as well as providing instruction for music educators in Southern California.

References

External links

Official website for Dan Radlauer
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Radlauer, Dan Living people American film score composers American male film score composers American jazz composers American male jazz composers American music arrangers 1957 births Musicians from Los Angeles Fullerton College alumni People from La Habra Heights, California Jazz musicians from California