Lee Holdridge

On his early years and influences; on being born in Haiti, then fleeing to the United States; on his early interest in music and wanting to study the violin; on music and films he enjoyed as a child; on his parents' support of his music; on his first experience with an orchestra; on studying music in Boston and early compositions; on his music teachers, including Henry Lasker; on learning about film music

On his first paid composing job; on doing arrangements at RCA records; on writing music for the group Seventh Century; on film composers he admired; on being a dance arranger for Broadway shows; on mentor Milt Okun and working with Placido Domingo; on his involvement with music education outreach at the LA Opera

On his passion for opera; on writing full-length operas; on differences between writing operas and writing for film; on his open-mindedness about types of music; on his process for writing music

On singers he listened to growing up; on learning about the rhythm section of an orchestra; on Stage 10 at Universal Studios; on his experience as a television composer at Universal Studios; on scoring episodes of McCloud and what he learned from his time at Universal

On the role of an orchestrator and the role of a composer; on the most important skill a film composer must have; on working with producers and directors; on temp tracks; on differences between writing music for film and for television; on working on multiple projects at once

On the "Lee Holdridge sound"; on scoring episodes of Hec Ramsey; on classical composers who would have made good film scorers; on famous musicians he did arrangements for: John Denver and Neil Diamond

On how evolving technology has affected composing; on the 1970s being a pivotal decade in his career - scoring the film Jonathan Livingston Seagull and scoring television at Universal; on scoring the film The Tuskegee Airmen; on being very insecure; on performing his score for the film Splash

On scoring National Geographic specials and several other documentaries, including The Long Way Home and many other films for the Simon Wiesenthal Center; on scoring films about the Olympics; on working with Henry Mancini and Blake Edwards; on working with studio musicians; on the final cue of Jonathan Livingston Seagull; on a joke he once played on a viola player

On advice to aspiring film composers; on creating the theme for Moonlighting; on writing music and winning two Emmys for his work on Beauty and the Beast; on composing for the soap opera One Life to Live; on writing music for animated films

On turning a music cue into a longer orchestral piece, "Elegy," and his thoughts on his music being played at concerts; on conducting; on dream projects and what he'd still like to do; on how he'd like to be remembered