Our own Grandstand Show Musical Director, David Pierce, brings home the Emmy for Outstanding Musical Direction!! Dave won this incredible award, beating out his “acknowledged ‘heroes’ in the music biz” – people like Canadian Producer David Foster and Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman.  An incredible feat! Congratulations Dave!!   

Best known for his fresh approach to orchestral writing, Emmy-award winner Dave Pierce is as equally comfortable conducting a 100 piece live studio orchestra as he is producing a midi-score using computers and samplers.  His sound has been described by Film Score Monthly as “son of John Williams meets Jerry Goldsmith”. Critically acclaimed across music genres, Pierce’s style spans from big band  to cinematic infused scores.  

Dave Pierce wins the Emmy!!

An alumnus of Berklee College of Music (1992), Pierce regularly works in all major markets; New York, L.A., Nashville, Toronto and Vancouver.  He orchestrated music for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Concert Tour and Jesus Christ Superstar Gospel, and has worked with legendary entertainment producers to develop many successful projects including The Calgary Stampede’s Evening Grandstand Show, Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular featuring The Rockettes, NBC’s Macy’s Parade and many television awards shows including the ACMA’s in USA and the Gemini Awards in Canada.   

In 2010, Pierce was the Music Director and Composer for the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. His scores accompanied the Opening, Medals and Closing Ceremonies which were viewed by a television audience of 3.5 billion people.  The Olympic project entailed scoring over five hours of original music, producing sessions, developing creative concept with the ceremonies team and conducting over 500 hours of orchestra, choir and big band recordings.
 
Often referenced by the media as “Canada’s next David Foster”, in August 2010 Pierce won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in the same category as fellow nominee and musical inspiration David Foster. Pierce has arranged music for a multitude of artists including Bryan Adams, Carrie Underwood, Michael Bublé, Nelly Furtado, Jann Arden, Tommy Tune, Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang, Alanis Morissette and Petula Clark. He has produced gold and platinum selling CD’s including EMI released CD’s for the Opening and Closing of the 2010 Olympic Wintergames featuring Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, Donald Sutherland, Hedley, Simple Plan, K-OS, Joni Mitchell, Measha Brueggergosman, Ben Heppner and Nikki Yanofsky.    

In 2005 Pierce was commissioned to compose a new work for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, featuring a symphony orchestra and one-thousand voice choir.  Symphony Orchestras across North America regularly perform Pierce’s music.

reposted with credit:  http://www.scorecreative.com/DPM/page0/page0.html  

For more information please see the Calgary Herald coverage on Dave:   

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Calgary+Emmy+winner+reputation+keeps+soaring/3456546/story.html

This week’s topic is something that I think we all love – music!  Did you know that the Calgary Stampede is one of Canada’s largest music festivals?  Pretty amazing considering that the 10-day event probably wouldn’t even pop to mind if I asked you to name major musical events across Canada.  I think that the rodeo and other western themes kind of overshadow the sheer amount of live music that’s being performed every day on Park.

However, in the interest of broadening your perception of everything that Stampede has to offer, consider this:

• During the week there will be over 250 live musical performances on Park
• The variety of styles performed is pretty extensive – pop, hip hop, country, folk, rock, alternative, childrens, world, Native American, musical theater, the list goes on and on
• The Coke stage has 36 performances during the 10 days, Nashville North has 44
• Our own Stampede Showband performs in a variety of different ensembles at least 13 times daily
• The Stampede Talent Search, with almost daily performances, features youth from 6-21 years and has featured artists like Paul Brandt and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald
• There are also several daily performances on the Saddledome Plaza Stage and many different acts that make up the Grandstand show!

The best part is that with the exception of the concerts in the Pengrowth Saddledome and the evening Grandstand show, all of these other performances are INCLUDED in the price of gate admission!

Have I managed to convince you that music is a really big deal at Stampede?  If you’re looking for specifics on when and where your favorite artist is playing, or if you want to check out something entirely different, visit the Stampede website and learn more. You can plan out a pretty jam-packed 10 days of concert-going and maybe you’ll even expand your musical tastes.

Let us know what kind of bands you’re excited to see on Twitter at @calgarystampede or on Facebook through our official Facebook fan page.  Yahoo!