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Michael Abels

Michael Abels

Birth : 1962-10-08, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

History

Michael Abels (born October 8, 1962) is an American composer best known for his genre-defying scores for the Jordan Peele films Get Out and Us, for which Abels won a World Soundtrack Award, the Jerry Goldsmith Award, a Critics Choice nomination, and multiple' critics awards. The hip-hop influenced score for Us was short-listed for the Oscars and was even named “Score of the Decade” by TheWrap. Other recent media projects include the films Bad Education, Nightbooks, Fake Famous, and the docu-series Allen v. Farrow. Current releases include Beauty which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is now streaming on Netflix, Breaking (formerly 892) which premiered at Sundance, and his third collaboration with Jordan Peele, Nope. Abels’ works also includes many concert works, such as At War With Ourselves for the Kronos Quartet, Isolation Variation for Hilary Hahn, and the opera Omar co-composed with Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Rhiannon Giddens. Some of these pieces are available on the Cedille Records, including Delights & Dances and Winged Creatures. Current commissions include a work for the National Symphony Orchestra and a guitar concerto for Mak Grgić. Abels is co-founder of the Composers Diversity Collective, an advocacy group to increase visibility of composers of color in film, gaming and streaming media.

Profile

Michael Abels

Michael Abels

Michael Abels

Movies

Music Producer

The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Bologne rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette and her court. Inspired by the incredible true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Music Arranger

The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Bologne rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette and her court. Inspired by the incredible true story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

Landscape with Invisible Hand

Landscape with Invisible Hand

Music

Two teenagers come up with a plan to ensure their families' futures when an occupying alien race's promise of economic prosperity leaves most of humanity impoverished and desperate.

Original Music Composer

Desperate for money and running out of options, Marine veteran Brian Brown-Easley holds several people hostage inside a bank, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with police.

Original Music Composer

Residents in a lonely gulch of inland California bear witness to an uncanny, chilling discovery.

Original Music Composer

A young singer on the brink of a promising career finds herself torn between a domineering family, industry pressures and her love for her girlfriend.

Original Music Composer

Explores the meaning of fame and influence in the digital age through an innovative social experiment. Following three Los Angeles-based people with relatively small followings, the film explores the attempts made to turn them into famous influencers by purchasing fake followers and bots to “engage” with their social media accounts.

All Day and a Night

All Day and a Night

Original Music Composer

While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

Orchestrator

A superintendent of a school district works for the betterment of the student’s education when an embezzlement scheme is discovered, threatening to destroy everything.

Original Music Composer

A superintendent of a school district works for the betterment of the student’s education when an embezzlement scheme is discovered, threatening to destroy everything.

See You Yesterday

See You Yesterday

Original Music Composer

As two teen prodigies try to master the art of time travel, a tragic police shooting sends them on a series of dangerous trips to the past.

Original Music Composer

Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

Original Music Composer

Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.