A NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER
Composing the score to a motion picture is always a deep and creative immersion. Since the beginning of our discussions about the music for Discover The Gift, it was clear to me that I wasn’t just helping to tell a story, but that I was part of a deep commitment to cultivate something much bigger than all of us… something that could possibly give people the permission and courage to follow their dreams and passions. While composing the score, I found myself in a realm of freedom with an opportunity to let go of my own constraints, thus allowing myself to be a channel for two of my greatest passions – rhythm and melody. For me, this journey has become a rediscovery of the miracle and the blessing that Music is. It has become a personal reminder of our responsibility to let go and rise above our own fears and self-doubts, so that we can be the contribution that we are each born to be. My wish is that this music leaves you inspired to create and share your own unique gifts and talents with the rest of us. It really is why we’re here.
-Carlos José Alvarez
“A tour de force that showcases the phenomenal talent of the new composer, Carlos José Alvarez, who is sure to make a global impact in the world of music.”
-Ric Wake
Grammy-Winning Music Producer
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Biography
Carlos José Alvarez is a dynamic and versatile composer based in Los Angeles. As a child in a musical Cuban household he was exposed to a spectrum of music, ranging from the Cuban masters to the great symphonies. Enthralled by Cuban rhythms, Carlos took up percussion. At the age of twelve, he was accepted into a performing arts school where he studied symphonic percussion, music theory, and piano. Soon he started performing with orchestras throughout South Florida and earned a music scholarship to attend Florida State University, where he scored numerous award-winning student films. At graduation, Carlos was honored with a scholarship to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music. It was at Berklee that he connected his life-long passion for the cinema with his musical talents, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in Film Scoring. He then accepted a conducting fellowship to study with Michalis Economou and the Athens Symphony Orchestra.
Carlos’ narrative sensitivity is evident in the music he composes for the screen. In his artistic process, he considers himself as much a storyteller as a composer. Breathing life into the characters and luring the audience into the story is his devotion. His unique ability to craft powerful and touching melodies leaves his audiences spellbound.
Reviews
It’s not easy to make an inspirational documentary sound transcendental, especially when talking heads wax poetic on the power of love. But Carlos Jose Alvarez goes beyond the new age with the solid melodic content of DISCOVER THE GIFT. Tribal voices ethnic instruments and a full orchestra evokes the spirit of AVATAR’s Ewah as much as they do the Indian and Eastern cultures that pave the path for the subjects’ to discover their inner light, Alvarez makes each cue work as its own pleasantly evocative journey. And there’s real beauty to be found here, from meditative passages for samples and sole piano to bold, sweeping orchestral movements, all of which make Alvarez’s GIFT transcend an approach that could fall into massage table pitfalls in lesser hands. Instead, this rising composer affirms his own talent with an album that’s best described as a concept soundtrack of the spirit, music self-discovery that’s entrancing throughout.
– Daniel Schweiger
Film Music Magazine
October Soundtrack Picks