Brydern, Benedikt

Benedikt Brydern (born 1966 in Germany) studied violin and piano at the Richard-Strauss Academy of Music in Munich. He undertook private composition studies with Roumanian composer Stefan Zorzor.
He was invited to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival to perform in the Festival Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Bernstein in 1988. He returned to the Festival in 1990 to be part in the TV series "Orchestra!" hosted by Sir Georg Solti and Dudley Moore.

After graduation in 1992 he received a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship to continue his studies in the United States where he completed the Advanced Studies Program "Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television" at the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.
Among the instructors were Elmer Bernstein, Christopher Young, David Raksin and Bruce Broughton. During his year at USC he won an additional scholarship sponsored by BMI.
Since then he composed the music for Jon Voight's Award-winning film "The Tin Soldier", the Miramax Documentary "Rhyme & Reason" and several award winning indie feature films.He assisted acclaimed filmcomposer Christopher Young in writing the scores to the blockbuster films "Entrapment", "Urban Legend" and "Playing ByHeart".
As a producer and performer he has worked with violinist David Wilson on seven albums available nationwide. His compositions have won several international awards and have been premiered within the USA and overseas. As a guest lecturer he was invited to do various presentations about the filmscoring process and challenges at universities and colleges within and outside of the United States.