Randy Edelman

Randy Edelman grew up in Teaneck New Jersey, where he studied piano at an early age giving many recitals locally. After high school graduation he enrolled at the Cincinnati Music Conservatory where he majored in piano and composition. While in Cincinnati he began freelancing as a music arranger at James Brown’s King Records, and also wrote original music for regional theater.

Upon graduation Randy headed back to New York where he signed on as a staff writer at CBS April Blackwood Music. He also began playing piano in Broadway pit orchestras and continued his interest as a music arranger. He went out on the road as Music Director for many entertainers. It was while traveling that Randy began writing both his own music and lyrics with an eye toward doing his own albums. It was the beginning of a decade of producing and writing his own solo albums.

The albums led to Randy’s appearances as opening solo act to such diverse groups as The Carpenters and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. His songs began being recorded by such popular recording artists as Barry Manilow (“Weekend In New England”), Olivia Newton-John, Patti LaBelle, The Carpenters, The 5th Dimension, Jackie DeShannon, Blood Sweat and Tears, Kool & The Gang, Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA), and Bing Crosby to name a few. Subsequent success of his records in the United Kingdom led to appearances on the Top of the Pops, concerts at the London Palladium and Drury Lane Theaters, and tours throughout Europe, Japan and Australia.

It was shortly after arriving in Los Angeles that Randy became interested in using his background as a classical musician and arranger to pursue his interest in film scoring. In between his album recording he began scoring several television and feature films. His tv scoring work included MacGyver, Maximum Security, Mr. Sunshine, Brisco County Jr. to name but a few. Children’s projects included PBS Wonderworks, The Care Bears album and several award-winning After School Specials.
After dealing in the “short form” of pop songs Edelman found the film work liberating and decided to devote his full time to pursuing composing music for motion pictures. He has now composed over 100 scores for film and television.

His scores have been performed by such symphonies as Boston Pops, Charleston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and the London Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. His score from "The Last Of The Mohicans" was nominated for both the British Academy Award and the Golden Globe. His movie themes have become a backbone of sports broadcasts. He has written the NBC’s NFL Football Theme, ESPN's Sports Century documentary series theme, and the on-air Olympic theme for NBC. His scores have opened the Super Bowl and closed the Olympic broadcast for which he received an Emmy Award.

In 2003 Randy received BMI's highest honor, the Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement.

In June 2004 Randy Edelman was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati. He received the Ph.D along with
3 other distinguished honorees from various fields, including Coretta Scott King. In 2005 Randy had his biggest chart record with Nelly's "My Place." It reached #1 on Billboard's Rap and Hip Hop charts, and #4 on the Pop chart. In 2007, Edelman was nominated by the IFMCA (International Film Music Critics Association) for "Best Original Score For Television" for ABC's mini-series "The Ten Commandments."
He recently scored Disney's live action "Underdog," Focus Features "Balls Of Fury," Fox's "27 Dresses," and Universal's "Mummy 3, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor."
Randy's song, "Weekend in New England," was recently featured in the smash hit film "Paul Blart, Mall Cop."

In 2010 he completed scoring Leap Year in London starring Amy Adams. He has traveled this summer doing film scoring seminars in Tel Aviv,Israel, at Spain's Ubeda Music Festival (where he conducted his Dragon Trilogy) and at the Sundance Institute chaired by Robert Redford. In 2011 he was awarded the Gold Spirit Award, named in honor of Jerry Goldsmith, for "Leap Year," as Best Comedy Score. His album of new original songs "THE PACIFIC FLOW TO ABBEY ROAD" has been released by Cherry Red Records in the UK and Varese Sarabande Records in the US.

In January of 2013, Edelman conducted a concert of many of his film scores with the CCM Philharmonia Orchestra. Before the concert he was presented with the 2013 Kautz Alumni Masters Award by President Santa Ono for being this year's Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Cincinnati. At long last Warner Records is releasing Randy Edelman's songs that he produced for Dionne Warwick. He recently helped soundtrack label VareseSarabande celebrate their 35th anniversary at a Halloween Gala concert in which he conducted the Golden State Pops Symphony in several original concert pieces. Also, amongst others was Edelman's own "The Call to Adventure" from the Mummy 3, which coincidently closes the new 35th Anniversary CD from Varese of recent great movie scores from the last few years.
In 2014 Randy is currently scoring the new Universal thriller, "The Boy Next Door", starring Jennifer Lopez. He is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of NBC's use of his on air theme for the Olympics, with the Winter Games from Sochi, Russia. The round the clock broadcasts, on both the NBC network and their many affiliated cable stations 24hrs a day, are seen all over the world for a 2 week period with each new Summer or Winter Games. He was awarded the 2014 BMI Spotlight Award for this theme.
Already in 2015, he composed the Indie film "Leaves of the Tree" shot in Sicily, Italy. Randy also made solo performances in London, England at The St James Theatre and the Jazz Café. He also made a special appearance in New York at the Bitter End. In July Randy receives the Lifetime Achievement in Film Scoring Composition at The Long Island Film Festival. Randy is currently working on several film projects and will appear again in New York in July.