Gerhard Daum is a German composer specialising in film scores, musician and music producer. Composer_Gerhard_Daum

Biography

Gerhard Daum, born on September 30, 1956, in the southern German city of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, developed an interest in music early in his childhood. He began playing the trumpet in his youth and performed with several brass bands. As a teenager, he also learned to play the guitar and piano before starting his studies in music. Daum attended the University of Music in Karlsruhe, where he graduated with a music diploma, with classical guitar as his main instrument. His studies included a semester at the

University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, also known as Kunstuniversität Graz (KUG) is an Austrian university. Its roots can be traced back to the music school of the '' Akademischer Musikverein'' founded in 1816, making it the oldest un ...

, Austria, where he focused on

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

. Following his studies, Daum worked as a guitar teacher at the renowned Jazz & Rock School Freiburg from 1985. During this time, he also toured through Europe with his own

and rock ensemble, the Gerhard Daum Quartett, performing in Germany, France..,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. He later founded the music publishing company Gerhard Daum Music Edition in 1993 and his label ToneWork Records in 1995. His focus switched to

film music A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

after the

Bayerischer Rundfunk (; "Bavarian Broadcasting"), shortened to BR (), is a public broadcasting, public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Bavaria, Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD (b ...

offered him a job in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Inspired by the scores of

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarde ...

, John Barry, and

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

, among others, Daum began composing scores for German films and TV series, including

Tatort ("Crime Scene") is a German-language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with 30 feature-length episodes per year, making it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public-se ...

To further his knowledge, Daum moved to Hollywood in 1997. He took Music Ethnology classes at

CSUN California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge), is a public university in the Northridge, Los Angeles, Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. With a total enrollment of 36,848 students (as o ...

and participated in the film music master class at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. Daum gathered international experience and composed scores for productions such as

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Felon A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that ...

. He currently lives in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, where he continues to compose for a variety of productions.

Work

A versatile composer, Daum has worked on music for film, television series, commercials, and video games in Germany and the US and has won awards for his work. Of the numerous television series Daum has composed music for, highlights include

Forsthaus Falkenau ''Forsthaus Falkenau'' is a German television series. See also * List of German television series External links * 1980s German television series 1990s German television series 2000s German television series 1989 German television series ...

, Die Garmisch-Cops, and German cult TV series

. He gained recognition through his scores for independent feature films such as ''Reflex Action'', ''Hollywood Kills'', ''Prince of Swine'' and most notably for the Hollywood action drama

, starring

Val Kilmer Val Edward Kilmer (December 31, 1959 – April 1, 2025) was an American actor. Initially a stage actor, he later found fame as a Leading actor, leading man in films in a wide variety of genres, including Comedy film, comedies, dramas, action fi ...

, Sam Shephard, and

Stephen Dorff Stephen Hartley Dorff Jr. (born July 29, 1973) is an American actor. Starting his film career as a child appearing in the Cult following, cult horror (genre), horror film ''The Gate (1987 film), The Gate'' (1987), Dorff first rose to prominence ...

. The music from the movie was performed by the

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestras operated under the auspices of Bayerischer Rundf ...

at the Film Music Night in

in 2009. His music for the image film ''Every Child Counts'' won the NTVA Music Competition Gold Award in 2001 Daum also made a name for himself with his scores for documentaries, in particular the soundtrack to the German documentary ''Hindenburg & Hitler – The Making of a Führer'' and the US film ''That Which I Love Destroys Me'', which won the Voice Award 2015 at

Royce Hall Royce Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison (James Edward Allison, 1870–1955, and his brother David Clark Allison, 1881–1962) and completed ...

. In addition to film music, Daum has produced several solo CD projects. His debut album, a world music project titled ''Mental Voyager – A Music Journey'', was released in 1993 on the label ToneWorks Records and was re-released in 2014. A second album followed in 1996, ''Mental Voyager – Voiceland'', which was one of few

Dolby Surround Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. The terms Dolby Stereo and LtRt (''Left Total'', ''Right Total'') are also used to describe so ...

releases at the time. The album comprises seven songs, a

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

, neoclassical crossover between epic, symphonic elements, classical solo voices and rock, combined with electronic sound design. The songs feature vocals by members of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Choir, Cambridge Consort Voices and Historisches Ensemble Regensburg. Daum released a further solo project on ToneWorks Records in 2015, ''Epic Drama'', which includes epic tracks for orchestra, electric guitars, drums, solo voices and choirs in a postmodern neo-classic rock symphonic style. ''Film Music Suites'', released on ToneWork Records in 2017, presents a collection of suites, re-orchestrated from Daum’s recent original compositions for film and TV. All of the pieces were recorded with the

Brandenburger Symphoniker The Brandenburger Symphoniker is a German orchestra based in Brandenburg an der Havel Brandenburg an der Havel (; ) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, which served as the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg until it was replaced by Berlin ...

under the direction of Hannes Ferrand. Since 2001, Daum has also composed and produced industrial releases for film, television and games for the Gerhard Daum Music Edition/ToneWorks Records, first in Los Angeles and now in Berlin. These include ''Explosive Choirs'' (2007), ''Green Evolution'' (2008), ''Storm Guitars'' (2009), and ''3D-Scoring'' (2012).

Filmography

* That Which I love Destroys Me (USA, 2015) * Die Garmisch-Cops (Germany, 2012–2014)) * Hindenburg – Der Mann, der Hitler zum Kanzler machte (Germany, 2014) *

(USA, 2008) * Prince of Swine (USA, 2010) * Hollywood Kills (USA, 2006) * Hatchetman (USA, 2003) * One of Us (USA, 2002) * Reflex Action (USA, 2002) * The Strange Case of Mr. K (Italy, France, Germany, 2001) * Hitmen (USA, 2000) * Love, Ltd. (USA, 2000) * Große Freiheit (Germany, 1997) * Au Pair (UK, Germany, 1994)Au Pair
''Variety'', retrieved November 3, 2015 * Stella Stellaris (Germany, 1994) *

(17 episodes, Germany, 1991–1992) * Das größte Fest des Jahres – Weihnachten bei unseren Fernsehfamilien (Germany, 1991)) *

– Bier vom Fass (Germany, 1989)

Discography

Soundtracks

* That Which I Love Destroys Me (2015) * Hindenburg & Hitler – The Making of a Führer (2014) * Film Music Collection II (2012)

Solo Projects

* Epic Drama (2015) * Mental Voyager – Voiceland (1996, rereleased 2015) * Mental Voyager – A Music Journey (1993, rereleased 2014) * Film Music Suites – The Brandenburger Symphoniker play Film Music Suites from original film & TV themes, composed by Gerhard Daum (released 2017)

References

External links

Official Website
*
Gerhard Daum
on Crew United {{DEFAULTSORT:Daum, Gerhard 1956 births German composers Musicians from Freiburg im Breisgau University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna alumni Living people