BIOGRAPHY
Billboard Top-Ten artist Emmanuel Fratianni is a versatile conductor, composer, and pianist who embraces the worlds of jazz, film and video games as well as the classics. He is highly regarded as an invaluable team member in music direction for large symphonic multimedia productions and is known for his ability to manage the demands of film sync, musicians, choir, guest artists and audience rapport while never compromising the musical and artistic integrity of the orchestra or production.
Emmanuel Fratianni has conducted many prestigious American ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, Boston Pops, National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Symphony, Dallas Symphony, and Utah Symphony Orchestra among others, including multi-platinum producer "David Foster and Friends " pops/symphonic program.
Internationally, Emmanuel has guest conducted the Spanish National Symphony, Royal Scottish National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Malaysian Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Chile and the Beijing Opera and Performing Art Orchestra.
Since 2009 Emmanuel has served as principal conductor of the acclaimed symphonic touring production Video Games Live and is conductor of the Santa Barbara Chamber Players which inaugural 2023 season included Dvorak Symphony no.7, Copland's Appalachian Spring, Elgar's Enigma Variations, Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and Lalo Schifrin’s Tuba Concerto performed by Gene Pokorny, principal tuba of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Emmanuel's latest music direction and arranging project, Stars On The Lake, created in collaboration with noted Swiss pianist and composer Thierry Lang, was released by Universal Music Group in the fall of 2024. The orchestral suite, featuring the Orchestre de Chambre de Fribourg and leading European jazz soloists, premiered in Switzerland to a sold-out audience in September 2023
From 2000 to 2005, Emmanuel Fratianni worked as an orchestrator and additional music composer on the multiple Emmy-nominated CBS/Paramount drama JAG, and later arranged "on-set" music performances for the TV series NCIS, collaborating with top Hollywood studio musicians. He was also part of the music team for five Academy Award ceremonies, one Emmy Awards show, and major Hollywood blockbusters, including Avatar, The Amazing Spider-Man, Troy, and the TV series Star Trek. Emmanuel credits this invaluable experience in television and film scoring as key to preparing him for the demands of Pops symphonic productions and Interactive Media, handling diverse guest artists, and mastering various musical genres.
As a composer, Emmanuel's music for interactive media has been performed by some of the finest and most recorded orchestras in the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Boston Pops. His work is featured on track 1 of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2011 album release, The Greatest Video Game Music, Vol. 1.
As a recording artist Fratianni made his debut on the Billboard Top-Ten chart in 2008 with EMI Classics' Video Games Live, Vol. 1 soundtrack album cementing his status in the classical/crossover orchestral world. His awards include “Soundtrack of the Year” by Play Magazine for the score to Advent Rising, one Game Audio Network Guild Award and five nominations.
In 2013, he served as music director for the opening gala of the new Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles Airport (LAX), for which he composed a multimedia symphonic work in homage to the new terminal, the City of Los Angeles, and its rich multicultural population. The tone poem, titled Portale, a Gateway to the World, commissioned by Westfield Corporation, was presented to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and performed live inside the terminal.
Emmanuel Fratianni is an active guest lecturer at music institutions in both the U.S. and Europe. Since 2016, he has been an adjunct professor at Ecole des Musiques Actuelles (EMA) in Geneva, Switzerland, where he teaches music composition for film and interactive media.
He holds dual citizenship in Italy and the United States and is fluent in English, Italian, and French. He resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his spouse, composer Laurie Robinson, and their 13-year-old son just five minutes walk from the Pacific ocean. Together, they also maintain a home in the Campania region of Southern Italy.
History:
Born and raised in a large and lively Italian family on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Emmanuel began his classical music studies at the age of 7 at the Montreux Conservatory. As a teen, he discovered the music of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and Miles Davis and began performing publicly with his quartet at age 14. A few years later Emmanuel was to debut on the outer stages of the famed Montreux Jazz Festival.
Strongly Influenced by the lyricism of his southern Italian roots and his classical training, Emmanuel’s prolific work as a composer was recognized at the young age of 28 when he was awarded Montreux’s most prestigious commission. The symphony in three movements for jazz quartet and large orchestra, September Suite, premiered at Stravinsky Auditorium for the opening of the city's 1995 cultural season. The live recording marked the beginning of Emmanuel' s orchestral recording career, which he has continued in the US and abroad with releases on EMI classics, and video game scores on Nile Rogers Sumthing’ Else record label, to name a few.
Musically restless after the September Suite success, Emmanuel's attention turned towards collaborating with film makers and visual artists when he eventually uprooted to Los Angeles in 1997. He continued his training in Los Angeles at the University of California (UCLA), the Dick Grove School of Music, and privately with critically acclaimed, multi-Emmy winning television composers Alf Clausen (of The Simpsons), Jay Chattaway (StarTrek) and Steve Bramson (JAG). He studied music direction with Hollywood veteran conductor Jack Feierman and took part in seminars on classical symphonic literature and conducting led by Maestro Neeme Järvi.