Hello! Thanks for visiting my page.
My name is Mike; I am a musician and composer with several years of experience composing for film and television. I started playing music when I was about 9 years old, starting with guitar and later progressing to the string bass, mandolin, keyboards, and voice, among other instruments. I am classically trained, holding a Bachelor's Degree in Music from Ithaca College. I also have a lot of experience performing in bands playing everything from jazz to worship, to traditional Irish music.
While I was in college, a friend asked me to score a film for him, and I discovered that I loved the process of doing just that. I have since written the music for many films, including some that have been accepted to national film festivals, and one that has been purchased for airing by a national television station.
Please take a look at some of what I've done in the past and feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Enjoy!
"Cannon's Wake" is the story of the son of a Pirate Captain, a man who struggles to live a normal life in the modern world but can't quite escape the reputation of his father. The score is a mixture of live strings and studio layering, and has influences of Sea Shanties and traditional Irish tunes throughout. The deaf-accessible documentary, "Living in Two Worlds" is the story of Naomi Berlove, a hearing girl who was born to two deaf parents. It traces her life as she struggles between the deaf culture of her parents and the hearing culture of her world. The score is kept instrumentally very simple to let the story speak for itself, and only enhances the emotion of hearing Naomi's story through her own words. For "Dick Derring in: Lunch at the Onglé Rouillé", director Michael Crandall wanted to make a film in the style of the old film noir. It is the story of a detective who struggles to hold onto the "old ways" of investigating crimes, even while computers revolutionize the task all around him. For the score I tried to stay as close to the old film noir music as possible, primarily using that and the music of Tom Waits as inspiration. This was the first score I ever wrote. "A Roof in New York: Advocacy in Albany" is a documentary about Habitat for Humanity's work in Albany, New York, and about the housing crisis in New York in general. It was produced for Habitat to show in college campuses across America, to recruit people to help in their mission. Although the director and I wanted to keep a folky feel to the score, I wanted to modernize it as much as possible as well, as this issue certainly is a contemporary one. Thus, I used contemporary styles and instrumentation throughout much of the score. While I was in college, I took a film scoring course which, as its final project, had us score a clip from the classic 1979 film, "The China Syndrome." It was extremely fascinating to examine a classic film in this light, and then to hear our work performed by a world-class orchestra: The Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Jeffery Meyer. | "Cannon's Wake"
"Living in Two Worlds"
Documentary
Directed by Alyssa Tucker
Original Music by Michael Fowler
"Dick Derring in: Lunch at the Onglé Rouillé"
Film Noir
Written and Directed by Michael Crandall
Original Music by Michael Fowler
"A Roof in New York: Advocacy in Albany"
Documentary
Produced by Habitat for Humanity, New York State
Directed by Joshua Deal
Original Music by Michael Fowler
"The China Syndrome" (1979)
Drama
Directed by James Bridges
Original Music 2007 by Michael Fowler
Performed by the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra
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Contact Mike: mfowlermusic@gmail.com