New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Composer
Kevin Kliesch earned his second consecutive Daytime EMMY nomination for Outstanding Achievement in
Music Direction and Composition for his work on the Disney
Junior series SOFIA THE FIRST. The nominated episode, Princesses To The Rescue!, features an appearance by the beloved Disney Princess Mulan.
"Since Mulan makes an appearance in this episode, from the very first shot I wanted to set a tone that transported the viewer to the land of Wei-Ling," said Kliesch. "I had the opportunity to use non-traditional Asian-themed instruments in this episode to augment the sweeping score that the picture deserved, which was a nice change."
Originally from New Jersey,
Kevin is a graduate of, and former instructor at Boston's Berklee College of Music. A multi-instrumentalist,
Kevin plays piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, French horn, and saxophone.
Kevin has worked as a composer and orchestrator on over 100 feature films spanning the past seventeen years, including Frozen, The Hangover, Tangled and Shrek Forever After. He parlayed his success as an orchestrator to composing, where he has found success in the animation genre - receiving his first
Annie Award nomination for his work on the Thundercats series in 2012. That year he earned two more nominations from BSO
Spirit for their Jerry Goldsmith Awards in Best Television score (Thundercats) and Breakout Composer of the Year.
Having worked on many successful Disney properties as an orchestrator,
Kevin was given the opportunity to compose for the Disney
Junior series
Sofia the First. His work on the series would earn him his second
Annie Award nomination as well as his second Daytime EMMY nomination. Kevin's recent composing projects also include DC Comics' animated movies Superman: Unbound and
Justice League: War, along with the Walt Disney short film Tangled Ever After.
"To find out that I was nominated for the second year in a row for my work on
Sofia THE FIRST was beyond thrilling. I'm very thankful to the Academy that they continue to honor my work on the show," said Kliesch.
