MEET OUR ALUMNI
We celebrates the diverse and successful journeys of our alumni. These talented individuals, hailing from across the globe, embody the excellence of our program. They have made their mark in the film music industry, composing award-winning scores and collaborating with top filmmakers. Their accomplishments showcase the high-caliber education provided by the Film Scoring Intensive program at Chigiana and serve as an inspiration to both current and prospective students.
FILM SCORING INTENSIVE PROGRAM 2022
LUIS ALACAN
website https://luisalacan.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-alacan/
Luis Alacan is a film composer and orchestrator born and raised in Miami, Florida. He co-composed, orchestrated, and conducted for the feature-length Italian horror film “Art of Diversion” (2023), directed by Gabriele Altobelli. The film was screened at the Angelika Film Center in New York, Bill Cosford Cinema at the University of Miami, and CineTeatro Gerardo Guerrieri in Matera, Italy. He received his Bachelor of Music at Florida International University (FIU) where he took courses on electronic music and contemporary composition with Dr. Jacob Sudol and Dr. Orlando Jacinto Garcia respectively. He wrote music for FIU’s CasaCuba promotional video, narrated by actor and alumni Andy Garcia, which has earned the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Silver Award in the Short Video Fundraising and Stewardship category. He has earned his master’s degree in the Media Scoring and Production (MSP) program at the University of Miami led by Carlos Rafael Rivera. There he worked as lab supervisor for the Frost School of Music’s computer lab and teaching assistant for the MSP graduate’s film scoring courses. He has scored for several short films presented at the university’s Canes Film Festival including “Carlos Luna: Colors of Freedom”, directed by Manisha Sharma, winner of three awards (Best Sound Design, Best Graduate Intro Film, Best Graduate Documentary Film).
ROBERTO MENGOLI
Roberto Mengoli (born August 1, 1998) is an Italian Film and TV composer and orchestrator, currently residing between London and Venice. He has worked internationally in Italy, UK, Spain and the USA, creating great partnerships with every team he joined. Projects he scored for have already premiered in important Film Festivals both in the United States and Europe. He composed and orchestrated “Call Me Crazy”, a feature film produced in New York City, currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi. He also composed soundtracks for Video-Games (Metus, Fall Royal), Theater plays (The Painter), Advertising (Granada Fashion Week) and Animated pictures (NDA). He loves working closely with musicians and orchestras, and often records his music in London. Roberto is currently in the mixing process for the movie “Sunflower” produced by Sounds Better Productions, and recorded in London, and has also signed contracts for two upcoming feature films, and has numerous projects already lined up in 2024.
MARTINIUS SOLUM
Martinius Solum is a composer and musician from Norway. He has a bachelor’s degree in popular music as a guitar player and artist performing his own music on stage with a band. In addition to this, Martinius has composed and arranged music for TV and commercials in Norway, as well as having composed music for the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, he attended the first ever Chigiana Film Scoring Intensive Program and has later went on to study film scoring at USC’s prestigious Screen Scoring program in Los Angeles, where he had the opportunity twice write for a full orchestra recorded at the legendary Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers. Martinius continues to work in the film and music industry, and is always looking for new and interesting projects to. Fun fact: Martinius was also a contestant on The Voice in 2021!
Chris Williams – by Michele Stapleton
CHRIS WILLIAMS
website: www.chriswilliamscomposer.com
Australian composer Chris Williams’ alluring and evocative music draws his listeners in through its sonic invention and subtle craft. It is music of expressive power and delicate detail. He has been commissioned by The Song Company, ANAM, the Tasmanian and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, and Carnegie Hall. He was twice featured at the Gaudeamus Muzeikweek in the Netherlands, and was an invited composer at the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan. In addition to concert music, Chris’ Theatre Music credits include ‘Cosi’, for the Melbourne and Sydney Theatre Companies; the Australian Premiere of ‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’, for the Melbourne Theatre Company; and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Cloud Nine’, for the Sydney Theatre Company. In 2022, Chris was invited to take part in the Chigiana Film Scoring Intensive Program, in Siena, where his work with ORT Orchestra della Toscana was awarded ‘best orchestration’ for the program.
Chris studied composition at the University of Oxford, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and is currently a PhD candidate at Duke University.
He is a represented Artist at the Australian Music Centre and is represented by Aurora Artists’ Management.
FILM SCORING INTENSIVE PROGRAM 2023
ANDREU DIPORT
website andreudiport.com
Andreu Diport (1998) is a composer, orchestrator, and arranger from Barcelona. He was part of the Montserrat Abbey Choir School (Escolania de Montserrat), the “Oriol Martorell” Artistic School, and the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona. He began his composition studies at the Catalonia College of Music (ESMUC) with Bernat Vivancos and Mauricio Sotelo. He continued his formation with Paweł Łukaszewski and Tomasz Opałka at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, sponsored by “Fundació Universitària Agustí Pedro i Pons”. He also participated in the Screen Scoring program of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Recently, he received a fully-funded fellowship from “La Caixa” Foundation to pursue the Screen Scoring MA at the USC Thornton School of Music (Los Angeles), where he has been awarded the Harry Warren Endowed Scholarship. There, he is studying with Lolita Ritmanis, Peter Golub, Pete Anthony, Garry Schyman, and Christopher Young, among others.
He has received multiple awards and has collaborated with numerous performers, choirs, and venues, including the main concert hall in Barcelona, the Palau de la Música Catalana.
JUAN FORERO
Music composer born in Colombia, currently based in Washington DC. Studied bachelors degree in composition at Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá) and masters of fine arts in music for motion pictures and contemporary media at Film Scoring Academy of Europe (Sofía). Started as a concert music composer and slowly shifted into theater plays and eventually landed in the film music industry. First as a composer assistant, then as orchestrator, sound designer and now as a freelance composer, scoring several short films, animation projects and feature length documentaries. In 2022 was awarded for best original score at the San Diego international film festival for the animation film “Sisyphus Rocks It!”. Juan also continues his work as arranger and orchestrator in the video games industry completing more than 20 orchestral recordings for Tencent’s franchise “Honor of Kings”.
ANTONIO MEDELLIN FAJARDO
website antoniomedellin.com
Instagram: @amedellinmusic
linkedin antonio medellin
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Antonio grew in musical environment provided by his father and family. He initiated his music studies in 2005 at Fundación UniMúsica in Bogotá, where he received piano and theory lessons.
Throughout the years he studied differents instruments such as guitar and saxophone, but his main interest has always been creation and movies, therefore his interest in composition oriented to filmscoring. In 2017 he started his bachelor in composition at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, under the mentoring of composer Juan Antonio Cuéllar, current CEO of Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia. His interest in filmscoring has led him to participate in visual projects such as the orchestration of the main theme for the movie Koatí (2022), produced by Marc Anthony and Sofía Vergara, and the commission of Sueño de una Gran Nación (2021) for the commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Constitution of 1881 of Colombia, which was performed by the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia and paired with a mapping show. During this time he was also the Mock-up producer and audio editor of the colombian series “Contra el Olvido”, which narrated the experiencies of musicians during the pandemic.
In 2021 and 2022, Antonio won the Call for scores Subtle Cheetah Brass Quintet and the AES Javeriana MIDI Production Competition. In 2023, he remained finalist at the OTICONS Faculty International Film Scoring Competition, the Apulia Soundtrack Awards and in May he participated in the Chigiana Film Scoring Intensive Program, where he won an award for Best Storytelling. Antonio’s pieces have been played by renowned orchestras in Colombia such as Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, Orquesta Filarmónica Juvenil de Cámara de Bogotá and Ensamble Filarmónico Bacatá. In 2022, Antonio earned his degree, recieving a Honorary Diploca for the Academic Merit.
GLENN SCHOONMAKER
website: https://glennschoonmaker.com
Glenn Schoonmaker is a composer, songwriter, and guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area, California. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Berklee School of Music with a bachelor’s degree in Music Composition for Film, TV and Video Games. Glenn has been writing, performing, recording, and producing his own music since the early 1990s. After a successful 20+ year career in high tech – working for companies such as Apple and Digidesign/Avid – Glenn shifted his focus to song writing and music composition. In 2023 he attended Chigiana’s Film Scoring Intensive in Siena, and has enjoyed working with fantastic composers and musicians from around the world.
JACKSON SPARGUR
website: www.jacksonspargur.com
instagram: @spargurmusic
Jackson Spargur is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles, California, currently living in the Albany area of upstate New York. He received a B.M. in Music Composition from Bard Conservatory in 2020, studying with Joan Tower, George Tsontakis and Susan Botti. Jackson also attained a B.A. in computer science at Bard, and studied jazz violin performance. He has had many pieces performed by the Da Capo Chamber Players, and in December 2019, the Bard Conservatory orchestra premiered his thesis composition Polaris. Since finishing his undergraduate studies Jackson has turned his interests towards film and video game music. In the summer of 2023 he attended a film scoring intensive at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, where he won “Best Original Score” for his culminating work, a rescore of a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He is currently building his portfolio and skillset, you can find his music and more at jacksonspargur.com.