Carl Schurtz
Encyclopedia
- For the journalist and reformer, see Carl SchurzCarl SchurzCarl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
.
Carl Schurtz (born August 7, 1958) is an American musician and business man. His is a three-time Telly Award winner for music, and a two-time Silver Mic award for radio.
Formative years and education
Schurtz was born in Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
to Carl R and Dr. Ora M. Schurtz. His father was national sales manager for Caryl Richards, a division of Faberge
Fabergé
Fabergé may refer to:*House of Fabergé, a Russian jewelry firm founded by Gustav Faberge in 1842*Fabergé workmaster, goldsmiths who produced jewelry for the House of Fabergé*Fabergé eggs, the most famous works of the House of Faberge...
in New York. As a youth, he began several businesses, ultimately managing a small chain of health food store
Health food store
A health food store is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health food, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements...
s during his college years.
He graduated from James Caldwell High School
James Caldwell High School
James Caldwell High School is an American four-year comprehensive public high school in West Caldwell, in Essex County, New Jersey, operating as part of the Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools. The school is named after American Revolutionary War figure Reverend James Caldwell...
in West Caldwell, New Jersey
West Caldwell, New Jersey
West Caldwell is an township located in the West Essex area in northwestern Essex County, New Jersey. It is located approximately west of Manhattan and six miles northwest of Newark...
, where he was a part of the music program. His major music studies were at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in New York City. He finished his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
in New Jersey. During his college career he attended the Aspen Music Festival and School
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
studying composition with Michael Czjakowski and Krysztof Penderecki.
During the summer of 1979 he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
, France. He continued post graduate work with Hugo Weisgall
Hugo Weisgall
Hugo David Weisgall was an American composer and conductor, known chiefly for his opera and vocal music compositions...
at Queens College in New York.
Teacher and composer
Schurtz began his early career as a music teacher in Independent Schools in New York City. While teaching, he became the assistant conductor of the Independent School Orchestra (now the InterSchool Orchestra).In 1979, continued his classical music work, joining together with other composers to form the performance and music development group, "Sonic Union". His work, "Triangle" was reviewed by the New York Times.
New York City
During the 1980s he was commissioned by Fortune 500Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
companies to develop musical soundtracks for events, corporate image and informational videos. Soon thereafter, he worked with HBO in New York. He won a Telly Award (1993) for the HBO program Losing it All, and an Angel Award for Little Heroes. The United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
commissioned an orchestral score from him for their 40th Anniversary film Why, which was broadcast worldwide on United Nations Day
United Nations Day
In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, as which "shall be devoted to making known to the peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations and to gaining their support for" its work.In 1971 the...
, October 24, 1988. While working on these projects, he started a music company that produced music and soundtracks for 150 commercials and infomercials.
Schurtz composed many scores for the Acoustiguide
Acoustiguide
Acoustiguide is a provider in interactive museum guides for museums, art galleries, heritage sites and other public displays.Acoustiguide's first recorded guide was launched in 1957, a tour of Hyde Park narrated by Eleanor Roosevelt. This tour was the first of its kind...
Corporation. His music was the soundtrack to blockbuster museum exhibitions such as the Monet retrospective and the Miro retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, and was also heard on the nationwide tours of Catherine the Great, Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan – also written Teotihuacán, with a Spanish orthographic accent on the last syllable – is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, just 30 miles northeast of Mexico City, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas...
, Ramesses II
Ramesses II
Ramesses II , referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire...
. As part of his work on these programs, he worked closely with and directed sessions with actors such as Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
, William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
, Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
, Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
and Gary Owens
Gary Owens
Gary Owens is an American disc jockey and voice actor. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offers deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated as the announcer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Owens is equally proficient in straight or silly assignments and is...
. In 1992 he was chosen to create the music and effects for the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
retrospective at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington DC.
Simon and Schuster asked him to create the score for their entire series of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
audiobooks, one of which received a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nomination in the spoken word category. His Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
works continues to play around the world.
Los Angeles
In 1992, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career in film and television. Soon thereafter he began scoring feature films, most notably SweetheartsSweethearts
Sweethearts may be:*Sweethearts :*Sweethearts , a two-act comedy by W.S. Gilbert*Sweethearts , a 1938 MGM film starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy*Sweethearts , a book...
(1997) with Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.-Early...
, and Jack Frost
Jack Frost
Jack Frost is a sprite-like character with roots in Viking lore. There, he is known as Jokul Frosti . In Britain and United States, Jack is a variant of Old Man Winter and is held responsible for frosty weather, for nipping the nose and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, and...
(1996), a horror comedy film. He wrote the music to 12 feature films for Mystique Films, and 13 feature film Scores for Indigo Films.
Schurtz worked with Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
, on his only NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television special, Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
on her ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
special (winning a Telly Award for the score), the Brady Bunch on a CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
special, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
and Billy Preston
Billy Preston
William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...
in an ABC special, Robby Krieger
Robby Krieger
Robert Alan "Robby" Krieger is an American rock guitarist and songwriter. He was the guitarist in The Doors, and wrote some of the band's best known songs, including "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "Touch Me," and "Love Her Madly."...
(The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
) on the authorized Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
history. His television work led to scoring series for Showtime: Compromising Situations (18 episodes) and Hot Springs Hotel (14 episodes).
In 1996, began a post-production company and created final mixed audio tracks for broadcast and theatrical distribution (this comprises creating sound effects, backgrounds and foley effects, and combining these together into final mix). This company worked on 200 projects: feature films, television programs, commercials and interactive.
As Executive Film Producer, Schurtz produced Cow Camp for Kids, an award winning children's video and the feature film Speedway
Speedway (film)
Speedway is a 1968 action film musical film starring Elvis Presley as a racecar driver and Nancy Sinatra as his love interest.Scenes were shot at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina...
(aka the Last Road), starring Julie Strain
Julie Strain
Julie Strain is an American actress and model who was Penthouse Pet of the Month in June 1991 and later chosen as the magazine's Pet of the Year in 1993.-Early life:...
.
Interactive
1996 was a pre-Internet period. Interaxx was a cutting edge technology which consisted of an interactive TV system that delivered multiple streams of content to set top boxes via an advanced cable system. Schurtz developed the look and feel of all the audio content on this closed-end network.Radio
IndustryRadio.com was created by Schurtz in 1999. This was a hybrid media business, niche broadcasting specific content to specialized industries: accounting, aerospace, publishing, etc. He developed business plans for investors and created strategic alliances and managed a team of web developers.Radio
Celebrity Crime Club was first broadcast in 2003, and currently airs on 55 radio stations across the US. Schurtz created this daily radio feature and developed a successful new program with its own brand. The program won a Silver Mic award for in 2003. The proactive marketing plan was showcased at the Radio and Records conferences, where he represented the program. Who can forget the prison spatulas he gave out from Martha Stewarts' prison? Schurtz was the affiliate rep for this program.Schurtz's experience as affiliate sales rep with Celebrity Crime Club, soon came to the attention of Animal Radio, and he soon represented the most listened to pet show in America, helping to develop and execute a marketing plan to increase the number of stations and listeners.
All 25 of The New West Symphony
New West Symphony
The New West Symphony is one of several regional professional symphony orchestras in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was founded in 1995 to succeed two orchestras that ceased operations...
full length concert broadcasts were produced by Schurtz. These programs were hosted by the actor Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss is an American television and movie actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s.-Personal life:...
and won a Silver Mic award.
Non-profit management
In 2001 Schurtz joined the New West SymphonyNew West Symphony
The New West Symphony is one of several regional professional symphony orchestras in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was founded in 1995 to succeed two orchestras that ceased operations...
as a member of the Board of Directors. In 2006, at the Board's request, he became Senior Director of the Los Angeles Series. This position specifically drew on his skills in creating new organizations.
Schurtz held primary responsibility for the success of the series and meeting annual revenue goals through both earned and contributed income. He developed a brand in the Los Angeles media market through guiding marketing and live events to reinforced his unique branding of the organization. Ticket sales met revenue goals with a sold out house in less than 8 months (Jan 2006-Sept 2006).
He was named Executive Director of The Coalition for fire safe communities
Coalition for fire safe communities
The Coalition for Fire Safe Communities is a 501 nonprofit organization founded to help high fire risk communities in California design and implement a fire prevention system to provide an additional line of defense against wildfires....
in November 2008, and Executive Director of the Fifth Amendment Rights Alliance in December 2008.
At the Coalition for Fire Safe Communities, he earned recognition for the organization through a media campaign than began with articles in the Malibu Times and led to a feature on KTLA.
Awards
- Grammy Nomination, Star Trek Audio series (14 Episodes)
- Telly Awards, "Oprah Winfrey's "Nine", HBO, "Losing it All"
- Cindy Award, "Harley Davidson, The American Motorcycle "
- Angel Award, Little Heroes
- Silver Mic Award, "Celebrity Crime Club", "New West Symphony Radio Broadcasts"