JOHN KAEFER | composer
John Kaefer is a composer for the screen and concert stage. A trusted collaborator, he is known for his distinctive musical voice and nuanced, imaginative scores. His work ranges from artful electronic soundscapes to bold, propulsive orchestral music. A doctoral graduate of The Juilliard School, he embraces all aspects of the creative process and relishes crafting a score from the script to final mix.
Recent feature films include A SCORE TO SETTLE starring Nicolas Cage and ONLY starring Leslie Odom Jr./Freida Pinto. Of the score for ONLY, Film Music Magazine wrote "in a world increasingly in need of tenderness as it deals with growing madness, the elegiac quality of ONLY strikes a powerfully tragic, yet entrancingly melodic chord." The film climbed Netflix US to be the #2 most streamed film during the summer of 2020.
Active in television, John teamed up with composer Cliff Martinez on THE WILDS (Amazon). Other recent projects include SPIRIT & SOUL (Nat Geo doc), the drama series SEQUESTERED (Sony Pictures Television/Crackle), the Emmy Award winning docuseries COULD YOU SURVIVE THE MOVIES (Ample/YouTube Originals), as well as the Main Theme and Thematic Music packages for ABC's flagship programs GOOD MORNING AMERICA and 20/20, and the ABC primetime hit show WOULD YOU FALL FOR THAT. He also contributed additional music to the mega hit docuseries SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE (Amazon).
Outside of traditional media, John recently scored the Dick Wolf and Elliot Wolf produced podcast series DARK WOODS, which reached #1 on the iTunes fiction podcast charts and is currently being adapted by Universal Television. He also scored the live-action series QUANTUM BREAK (Microsoft Studios/Remedy), developed exclusively for Xbox One. Hailed as a "masterpiece" by Gaming Trend, the revolutionary game blurs the line between episodic television and cinematic gameplay, integrating the two into one seamless, uniquely immersive experience.
As a composer of contemporary classical music, John's work is programmed worldwide by leading musicians and ensembles at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, and La Schola Cantorum in Paris. Recently he conducted the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of his STATES OF MOTION, a three movement concerto for piano and string orchestra, featuring pianist Molly Morkoski. John has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, ASCAP, and the Barlow Endowment, among others. He serves on the Board Of Advisors for Composers Now and is Director of the BMI Foundation Pete Carpenter Fellowship.
In addition to a Doctor Of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School (C.V. Starr Fellow), John also earned degrees in music composition from Yale University (MM) and the Eastman School of Music (BM). He is currently on the Screen Scoring faculty at New York University.
John is represented by Soundtrack Music Associates.
Email: : info@johnkaefer.com
Representation: Soundtrack Music Associates
