Composers often toil for years, if not decades, before attaining the coveted status of writing music for motion pictures. Among such modern stalwarts, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri, and, surely, John Williams now hold the foremost status among those who write film scores, but it unquestionably took them considerable time to reach those hallowed positions. Top composers are so in-demand, they might be asked to write multiple film scores in one year and often juggle many projects at once.
Enter Tom Bimmermann, born in Luxembourg, now a resident of Los Angeles. From seven-years-old, he had been a musical prodigy, composing his first complete symphony by the age of 13. Influenced by Ludwig van Beethoven and other giants in iconic orchestral music, Bimmermann additionally wrote sonatas for the piano, pieces for chorale duos, and works for smaller groups of musicians, including string quartets.
Still a young teenager, in the 1980s, Bimmermann won competitions in Belgium and wrote for a command performance in Luxembourg, notably, in a legendary theater, before leaving his creative imprint in Paris, Austria, and Slovenia. Also a performer, Bimmermann gave many heralded concerts across the European territory of his birth, winning key musical awards.
Wanting to branch out, Bimmermann ultimately took his talents to Los Angeles, where he studied writing music for cinema at the University of California, Los Angeles. Very shortly thereafter, Bimmermann composed music for independent films, including a horror film, June Cabin, for which he created a score and recorded his original compositions with a 27-piece orchestra. Following that came the projects Brotherhood of Blood, Verso, and Monster Kids.
In all of these works, Bimmermann assimilated his European background, his formal training, and his respect for the originators of orchestral and symphonic music, a blend of the classical masters and 20th century Americans. “I have a unique sensitivity to capture the emotions evoked on the screen,” said Bimmermann, “and to successfully translate those emotions to music in serving each story.”
In addition to writing music for the screen, Bimmermann wrote, conducted, and produced an album of his own works, Symphonic Muse: The Works of Tom, recorded in Los Angeles.
