NEIL SMOLAR, jazz and orchestra
The actual facilities on record edition are producing a curious fact: a lot of composers decide to record a promotional CD with the best of their music as part of a process which combine the necessary publicity with certain artistic self-assurance. Thanks to this, we had been able to discover the music of canadian Neil Smolar, unknown author here, but whose music disclose a personality interesting enough to give him a minimum of attention.
Born in Montreal, Smolar studies classic guitar at the age of 14, and after devote himself during his juvenile years to play folk and blues on his home town, he decide to study music on Boston's Berklee College. There he devoted his efforts to study of jazz music, on which he graduate in 1976. In the summer of 1983 he return to Montreal to, among other things, compose the music for a film. Then it started his movie career. After some works on documentaries and shorts, Smolar compose in 1986/87 the music for a CBS series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The achieved experience allow him to work on his first success The Boys of St.Vincent (1993), a four-hour miniseries about sexual abuses on a catholic school which prokoked a big controversy in Canada. The hopeless and sad tone of the story were perfectly represented by Smolar's hard electronic music. Awarded in Rome, the miniseries opened the doors to his most ambitious project: Dieppe (1995). Centered on the useless combat of canadian troops on the town of Dieppe during the World War II, Smolar make the quantitative and qualitative jump to the symphonic orchestra, using the Toronto Symphony; the result, a wonderful and touching epic-dramatic music, gave him the Gemini Award to the Best TV Soundtrack on 1995, which are confered in Canada to celebrate the best TV works, the same as american Grammys. His last work for the CBS, Captive Heart - The James Mink Story (1996), continues on this same dramatic line, and using ethnic sounds and themes mixed with a colorful orchestral tone, tells the true story of a wealthy black man in the Canada of 1850s, and his adventure in the United States trying to rescue his daughter from slavery.

DIEPPE (Suite) (1995) - 29:44
CAPTIVE HEART: THE JAMES MINK STORY (Suite) (1996) - 11:17
THE BOYS OF ST.VINCENT (2 Themes) (1993) - 3:36
PAROLES D'ECHANGES - 3:58
CARMEN - 2:24

Filmography:
Uncertain Features
Reznikoff's Revenge (Short)
Of Dice and Men (Cartoon)
Safe
The Nature of Things: Edge of Ice (Documentary)
Man Alive: Running the Midnight Sun (Documentary)
Man Alive: The Many Worlds of Laurie Dexter (Documentary)
Heritage Minutes: Rural Teacher (Short)
Heritage Minutes: Peacemaker (Short)
Heritage Minutes: Vikings (Short)
Heritage Minutes: Springhill Miner (Short)
Heritage Minutes: Inukshuck (Short)
KCTV (TV Series)
The Art of Conversation (Short)
A Song for Tibet (Documentary)
Canada Remembers (Documentary)
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (TV Series) (1986-1987)
The Boys of St.Vincent (TV Miniseries) (1993)
Dieppe (TV Miniseries) (1995)
Captive Heart - The James Mink Story (TV Film) (1996)

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