On March 2 Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) awarded most outstanding original scores for 2020 films. Blizzard of Souls composer Lolita Ritmanis won for Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film.
The Soul composing trio of Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste won for outstanding original score for a studio film. Variety.com wrote “It was definitely an evening of “soul” at the second annual Society of Composers and Lyricists Awards, as the Pixar film Soul and the Latvian film Blizzard of Souls took the top prizes for outstanding original scores for 2020 films.” Carlos Rafael Rivera won the SCL Award for outstanding original score for a television production for Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit miniseries. More information on SLC webpage.
Lolita Ritmanis in the category for Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film was competing against Emile Mosseri (Minari), Sherry Chung (The Lost Husband), Steven Price and David Attenborough (A Life on Our Planet), Tamar-Kali Brown (Shirley).
She expressed her gratitude to director Dzintars Dreibergs and to all the crew of the film for having an opportunity to compose music for such breath taking war drama. Music for Blizzard of Souls also is one of the 15 films in the run for the Academy Award or the so-called Oscars Shortlist.
Conductor Māris Sirmais and singers of the State Choir Latvija led by the choir manager Māris Ošlejs took part in the recording of the music for the historical war drama Blizzard of Souls. A special orchestra was formed for the recording – Edgars Saksons, the orchestra producer and winner of the Latvian Grand Music Award, brought together musicians from the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian National Opera and Ballet, the chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Riga and Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. The music was recorded in the Latvian Radio Studio 1 by Māris Briežkalns and sound director Varis Kurmiņš. The author of the musical instrumentation is Larry Rench (USA) with additional instrumentation by Steven Rade, and music mixing by American producer and sound director Mark Mattson. The sound director of the film is Aleksandrs Vaicahovskis.
Blizzard of Souls received most of the funding from the state, and the rest was provided by the film’s general sponsor – one of the Latvian-born brands, warehouse store DEPO – as well as by the sponsor Latvijas Mobilais Telefons.
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