Thoughts

About Hendrik

I'm Hendrik Schwarzer and I have been writing music for film, theme parks and concert works since the age of twelve.
My approach is believing in the idea, a theme, a simple melody or a concept.
I love orchestras, the colors they consist of. Be it a French Horn, an Oboe or a muted Trumpet. Creating unbelievable blends that let the listener's imagination flourish has fascinated me ever since I was a young boy when I listened to the music of Stravinsky or Debussy. My first full-length concert work, which I wrote at the age of 16 premiered in my local Konzerthaus venue with the local Symphony Orchestra and a Choir. It was far from perfect, but in the same way it changed my life. I wanted to learn the craft of writing as fluid for an Orchestra, as I spell the words.
At the age of 17 I premiered a Piano Suite in 7 movements, which I performed in Munich, Zurich and The Hague and which was performed by other pianists too. It's a homage to Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an artist that I respect and who inspired me a lot in my further work.
The first soundtracks I did were done for two computer games. It was an interesting job, because music has to follow the storyline that is created in real time. The second score was recorded with an orchestra in Minsk and I learned a lot about orchestration and instrumentation as we recorded a lot of music for this project. One year later, I wrote a 90 minute concert work in 10 movements.

What I do
I started to write Soundtracks for Theme Parks. Thomas Mack, a good friend of mine, gave me the opportunity to write music for Europa-Park. He and his family run this wonderful place which I know quite well from my own childhood. Thomas itself is a great musician too and over the time we developed a wonderful collaboration. Like me he believes in real orchestral recordings which we have done mostly at Teldex in Berlin.
When I compose, I sit at the piano. I start finding this single theme. It's hard work as sometimes I sit there half the night without having anything. But when it is there, I move to my computer to do the instrumentation there.
It's a great thing, as I can listen to what I did and I am able to proof it. Anyway I was bound to the virtual instruments and orchestral sounds I used. Not every captured articulation of those sounds fits the idea I had in mind. That's why I decided to create my own sound sets and a virtual orchestra that is perfectly tailored to my style of music. It was a long and tedious work, but now I'm working with the tools I've created! It accelerates my workflow and fits to the creation process so much better.
I decided to making this and even more projects available for other composers, too, and founded Orchestral Tools.
Orchestral Tools became to one of the leading players for virtual orchestral sampling. Our instruments are used by composers like Hans Zimmer and in countless Hollywood film productions.
At the same time, Europa-Park let me to two additional animation films I've scored and recorded at Teldex in Berlin (The Time Carousel and Happy Family 4D). That's were I found my love in writing for Animation Films.
Another project to mention is the musical "Spook me!" which won the award for the best live show in a theme park at IAAPA in Orlando. It's a very classical oriented musical with colorful orchestrations and many themes for what I invested a lot of effort.
My latest Film Score I've written is for the Animation Movie "Happy Family" which is presented in cooperation of Warner Bros. and Ambient Entertainment.
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