THE AMAZING WORK OF COMPOSER NAMI MELUMAD

NAMI MELUMAD

Her picture makes her look like a young woman with not a care in the world. She has a genuine and open smile and her eyes sparkle as if she just won a lifetime free pass to Disneyland. So, you ask yourself, “What is she thinking inside that highly intelligent, yet slightly mischievous fresh face?” The answer, if you know anything about Nami Melumad, is music, of course. Her mind, although she does think about other things sometimes, is generally focused on music: film scores, to be a bit more precise.

Nami is one of the luckiest people on Earth because she composes music, conducts orchestras and ensembles, scores movies, commercials, video games and theatre. She’s lucky because first of all she works in the movie industry, which most of us would give our right arm to do, and secondly because being a composer and an orchestrator is one of the top rated professions for producing high emotional satisfaction in the one who is doing it. Nami’s music, by the way, also produces high emotional satisfaction in her listeners and in the film producers and directors she works with and their film-audiences.

Her score for Anna Skrypka’s movie At Last was nominated for Best Original Score at the Huston Comedy Film festival in 2016. It is a huge respect for sa composer to have their score considered for this award. Scoring comedies is quite a challenge; the music has to give personality to the characters, pace to the story, maintain a lighthearted tone and accentuate the jokes. (or "hit" the beats of the actors' performance).. Without Nami's lively score, At Last simply wouldn't be the entertaining, adorable and most importantly, successful movie that it is. The orchestration of the themes gives the movie a somewhat European vibe, creating a wonderful touch that fits the middle-aged characters well.  

Nami's works have been acknowledged in Israel, as well. Her music has been performed regularly by the Be'er Sheva Orchestra , Haifa Symphony orchestra and Revolution Orchestra, who performed her score to the animation Woods as part of a reoccurring  program, after she won their composition competition back in 2011.

Nami's academic background includes studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music- She was admitted directly to the sophomore year which is really unheard of.  During that time she was already scoring movies, most notable Until the End, Amir, and On The Edge, both screened in numerous festivals and TV networks in Europe and Israel. Nami later completed USC's highly competitive Scoring for Motion Pictures and TV program in Los Angeles, CA. Recently, she has been honored by Women in Film and has been invited to perform her scores at the Women Composers in Film concert. She is also part of The Alliance for Women Film Composers. Approximately 2% of the films today are scored by women, but with any luck, Nami is going to change these numbers towards equality.

Nami has already composed the music scores for dozens of documentaries, commercials and narrative films, most recently Mindgame, a mind-blowing thriller directed by Jamie Neese and produced by Jay Holben. She only has great things to say about the people she worked with in this movie and she feels Jamie Neese’s work is “perfect,” and we are sure he thinks the same about Nami’s work and efficiency in composing music scores. She wrote about 26 minutes of music score for that film in less than ten days! That is unheard of in the music business. And the score is incredibly perfect in every way. It drives the story forward, heightens suspense when needed and gives the audience a breather when they are out of breath. Nami doesn’t miss a beat (pun intended) when she is composing for films. She is like a seasoned carpenter who continually pumps out highly creative pieces of fine workmanship, each one handmade for one unique customer’s (movie's) personality. It’s an art and Nami is a true artist.



















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