Helix Collective Presents-CHANNEL SURFERS

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Sit back, relax, (wear your fuzzy slippers if you like!) and enjoy Helix Collective’s wild ride through today’s best television music. 

The concert features t.v. music from the following composers and T.V. shows: Jongnic Bontemps (We Are: The Brooklyn Saints), Jeff Cardoni (White House Plumbers), Kristopher Carter (Missy and the Maxinator), Sherri Chung (Based on a True Story), Tony Morales (Fubar), Layla Minoui (Vampirina), Cindy O’Connor (The Professional Bridesmaid and The 27 Hour Day), Didier Lean Rachou (Deadliest Catch and Sex and the City), Daniel Rojas (Fly Hard), Jeff Russo (Fargo and Ripley), and Amritha Vaz (Home). 

The Pre-Concert Party is hosted by the Composers Diversity Collective. T.V. night themed concessions will be on sale including popcorn and hot chocolate. Best PJ’s contest will be judged during the party and the winner announced onstage during the show! 

This concert is supported in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Thank you to our 2024 Season Sponsors BMI and Spectra Creative Agency and Concert Sponsor The Alliance for Women Film Composers. 

T.V. Show List 

Based on a True Story - Sherri Chung

Deadliest Catch and Sex and the City - Didier Lean Rachou

Fargo and Ripley - Jeff Russo

Fly Hard - Daniel Rojas

Fubar - Tony Morales

Home - Amritha Vaz

Missy and the Maxinator - Kristopher Carter

The Professional Bridesmaid and The 27 Hour Day - Cindy O’Connor

We Are: The Brooklyn Saints - Jongnic Bontemps

White House Plumbers - Jeff Cardoni

Vampirina - Layla Minoui

ABOUT HELIX COLLECTIVE

Helix Collective are classical musicians busting out of the traditional mold. From crossover dance music, to storytelling, to film, television, and video game music, the Los Angeles-based ensemble takes the best of classical chamber music and makes it the life of the party.

Variety Magazine praised Helix Collective’s musical range moving from “moody urgency and edgy chamber-music sound” to the “sweetly romantic evoking wide-open spaces.” Like the double helix, the ensemble is rearrangeable, flexible, and fuses the DNA of classical music into worlds where it’s never gone before. 

Helix has collaborated with many EMMY and GRAMMY winning film, t.v., and video game composers. In 2012 we founded the Los Angeles Live Score Film Festival, a live score-to-screen film festival that pairs film composers and indie filmmakers. Helix Collective produces Film Music Connect with SAGindie, providing independent filmmakers with original scores recorded by the ensemble. Helix Collective produces concerts featuring media composers that give them the chance to stretch their musical wings on the concert stage and connect with creative communities here in L.A.  

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS

JONGNIC BONTEMPS

Jongnic “JB” Bontemps is a uniquely modern film composer who has been tapped by Paramount Pictures to score the blockbuster, sci-fi action movie Transformers: Rise of the Beasts starring Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, and Michelle Yeoh for director and long time collaborator Steven Caple Jr. His score received the inaugural NAACP Image Award for Outstanding TV/Film Score and was nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award for Sci/Action Score. He also scored the Oscar Nominated Short Documentary The Barber of Little Rock directed by John Hoffman and Christine Turner and produced by Dwayne Wade. JB has lent his talents to a number of critically acclaimed documentary projects. He initially became known for his hip-hop infused score for the Tribeca-favorite documentary United Skates, and has since gone on to collaborate with multiple award-winning documentarians on their projects, including Julie Cohen and Betsey West’s feature film My Name Is Pauli Murray; his work for which was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award. His other documentary projects include the CNN special The People vs. The Klan, director Sam Pollard’s films Citizen Ashe and Reopening Night,  the Netflix documentary projects Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story and We Are: The Brooklyn Saints, and Shonda Rhimes’ Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker. 

JEFF CARDONI

Jeff studied classical piano as a child, spent a brief stint as lead guitarist for the Warner-Brothers band “Alien Crime Syndicate”, before pursuing film scoring full time.  With over 55 feature film scores and several network series to his credit, one can hear his work worldwide every day, and was voted ASCAP 2019 TV Composer of The Year.  His breakthrough series was the worldwide hit CSI:Miami for CBS, with his first studio film soon after Just Friends, starring Ryan Reynolds.   Other notable projects include Silicon Valley (HBO), The Kominsky Method (Netflix), Young Sheldon (CBS) , Ghosts (CBS), Heels (Starz), Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates (Fox), and the recent limited series White House Plumbers (HBO).  Upcoming projects include the Western drama Ransom Canyon for Netflix, a reboot of Cruel Intentions for Amazon, and the series adaption of the bestselling sci-fi young adult novel Fallen.

KRISTOPHER CARTER

Emmy-winning composer Kristopher Carter has contributed scores to some of the most recognizable cinematic properties for over 25 years, accompanying the animated adventures of Batman, Superman, the Teen Titans, the Justice League, the Avengers, Ben 10 and more along with composing partners Lolita Ritmanis and Michael McCuistion. He received an Emmy Award for Batman Beyond, as well as seven other Emmy nominations and four Annie Award nominations. When not composing superheroic fanfares, he can be found providing the creepy ambiences and jump scares behind horror films like Chiller TV’s SiREN, the 3rd installment of the V|H|S horror anthology, and indie favorite Dance of the Dead. Taking listeners on a completely different kind of journey, he produces and spins EDM (Electronic Dance Music) with his DJ project The Kr Protocol. He is thrilled to join the Helix Collective on this concert, having collaborated with them multiple times on scoring projects as well as their “Live from the Quarantines” Handwashing Music series.

SHERRI CHUNG

Sherri Chung as been recognized internationally as a trailblazing composer for film and television.  A versatile artist, she has composed the scores for numerous series including CW’s Kung Fu, the animated series for Amblin’s iconic franchise Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, NBC’s hit drama Found, and Peacock’s original comedic thriller series, Based on a True Story.  Her scores for film include Netflix’s The Lost Husband and Happiness For Beginners, as well as Warner Bros.' Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase and Tyler Perry’s upcoming film, Divorce In The Black.  Sherri has been recognized as Variety’s 10 Composers To Watch and is a 2024 nominee for the IFMCA Breakthrough Composer of the Year.  An active member of the film music industry, Sherri also currently serves as Governor of Music in the Television Academy. 

LAYLA MINOUI

Layla Minoui is an Iranian-American composer for film and television based in Los Angeles. She is known for her remarkable emotional depth, which lends itself to a sense of openness and breathability in her music. Layla Minoui has amassed a diversity of credits in both film and television including DreamWorks Animation short To Gerard (written/directed by Taylor Meacham), Disney animation series Vampirina (created by Chris Nee), Netflix series Ridley Jones (Chris Nee), Bravo’s Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, and has written additional music for Castle (ABC), The Gates (ABC), The Family (ABC), Lie to Me (Fox), and Disney Channel’s original movie Girl vs. Monster.  Minoui has worked on several independent features including comedy-thriller The Sound and the Shadow (dir. Justin Paul Miller) and Elysium Bandini’s gothic drama The Mad Whale starring James Franco and Camilla Belle. Apart from her role as a film and television composer, Minoui has embarked on a new musical venture, intertwining music, art, and therapy. She has recently released her solo debut album titled "Journey to Rebirth."

TONY MORALES

Tony Morales is an EMMY®-nominated composer who has traversed the worlds of drama, animation, comedy and documentary for both film and television. His latest projects include Amazon Prime's crime thriller series "Reacher" as well as the CNN original documentary series "Eva Longoria: Searching For Mexico" for which his score garnered him a 2023 EMMY nomination. Upcoming projects include season 2 of the hit Netflix action spy comedy series "FUBAR" and season 3 of "Reacher".

CINDY O’CONNOR

Composer Cindy O’Connor loves rom-coms and horror movies, and her recent projects include The Professional Bridesmaid and The Blessing Bracelet (Hallmark), Red River Road (Amazon Prime), and Forgiving the Franklins, a darkly comedic stage musical about sex, shame, and religion. She received an Emmy nomination for the ABC series Once Upon a Time, and her music can be heard in all seven seasons of the show on Disney+. As a performer she has sung on over a dozen film and TV soundtracks, and she spent four years touring as a keyboard player and singer with rock superstar Pat Benatar. 

DIDIER LEAN RACHOU

Didier Lean Rachou is the award winning composer for the 16-time Emmy winning series DEADLIEST CATCH (Discovery), as well as the final season of the multiple Golden Globe and Emmy winning SEX AND THE CITY (HBO). In May 2024, Didier took home his 31st ASCAP Film and Television Music Award. In 2017, his peers voted him the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Television Composer of the Year. In 2019, Didier was humbled to receive a French knighthood, being inducted into the Order of Arts and Letters. 

DANIEL ROJAS

Best-known for his eclectic and modern scores to shows like Dreamworks' Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeats, Marvel’s Hit-Monkey, and M.O.D.O.K., Daniel has become a fresh new voice in the world of scoring. His background as a songwriter and producer has allowed him to develop a unique style that seamlessly blends song production techniques with traditional scoring. He was born and raised in Costa Rica, and music has been around him since childhood. Daniel’s mother is a classical pianist originally from China and his father a Costa Rican trumpet player & band director. After receiving a classical education and playing in numerous bands as a teenager, Daniel decided to pursue music professionally and went on to study Jazz at the University of North Texas, before moving to LA to pursue film scoring. Most recently, Daniel scored the Illumination Entertainment short films Minions & More 1 & 2 (for Netflix) and Fly Hard, the comedy feature film Who Invited Charlie?, the Emmy-winning YouTube series Jam Van with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Nickelodeon’s animated series Monster High.

JEFF RUSSO

Jeff Russo is an Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated composer, scoring varied and compelling music for film, television and video games. Upcoming projects include Jon Avnet’s The Last Rodeo; and FX’s series Alien from Noah Hawley. 

Russo’s film credits include Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Rob Peace, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival; Bartlett Sher’s Oslo, which he co-scored with Zoë Keating and for which he received an Emmy nomination; Paul Dektor’s American Dreamer, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival; Sabrina Doyle’s Lorelei, which premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival; Noah Hawley’s Lucy in the Sky, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival; Peter Berg’s action-thriller film, Mile 22; and Jon Avnet’s Three Christs, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. 

His music can also be heard on shows such as Netflix’s limited series, Ripley; FX’s Fargo, for which Russo received an Emmy in 2017 and three additional nominations; Peacock’s Mrs. Davis; HBO Max’s Love and Death; Amazon Prime’s The Consultant; Showtime Networks’ The Man Who Fell to Earth; CBS All Access’s Star Trek: Discovery, and Clarice; Paramount +’s Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy; Cursed; and Altered Carbon; FX’s Legion and Snowfall; Starz’s Power Book II: Ghost, produced by Curtis Jackson “50 Cent”; Apple TV+’s For All Mankind; and more. 

In addition to composing music for film and television, Russo is a founding member, lead guitarist and co-songwriter of two-time Grammy nominated, multi-platinum selling rock band,Tonic. Their debut album, Lemon Parade, posted three singles in the U.S. Mainstream rock charts' Top 10 with "If You Could Only See" rocketing to number one. In 2003, the band received two Grammy nominations, one for “Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal” for "Take Me As I Am", and one for “Best Rock Album.” Russo also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Music for Annapurna Interactive's video game, What Remains of Edith Finch.

AMRITHA VAZ

Prior to scoring film and television projects, Amritha Vaz was a human rights attorney, which drives her desire to help tell stories with purpose. She started her composer journey working for Academy Award-winning composer Mychael Danna on 500 Days of Summer and they continue to collaborate today, most recently on the forthcoming drama, Couple of Heaven. Nominated for an ASCAP Composer's Choice Award and two Annie Awards for her work on Disney’s animated TV series Mira, Royal Detective, her other TV credits include an episode of AppleTV’s Emmy award winning Home. An ardent voice committed to equality and inclusion in the film music community, Amritha proudly serves as Co-President of the Composers Diversity Collective, founded by Michael Abels.