Composer, conductor, and impresario, Franz Waxman was best known for his prolific
career as a composer for the motion picture industry spanning 150 scores through the 1930-60’s.
(At home in 1949 with his piano and collection of the complete works by Bach.)

Over the course of his career, Waxman scored over 150 films including five for
Billy Wilder and four for Alfred Hitchcock including “Sunset Boulevard” and “Rear Window”.
(On set in 1954.)

Waxman won two Oscars for Best Score, was nominated twelve times,
and was the first to receive the honor in two consecutive years.
(With Gene Kelly and the award for his 1950 score for “Sunset Boulevard”.)

Waxman was also an accomplished concert composer and conductor. To this day, his most
frequently performed work is Carmen Fantasie which was first recorded by Jascha Heiffetz in 1946.
(Conducting Honneger’s “Joan of Arc” at the Hollywood Bowl 1949.)

In 1947, Waxman founded the Los Angeles Music Festival, and over the course of two decades used it as a platform
to champion American composers and introduce significant international composers with over
seventy premieres including work by Stravinsky, Shoenberg, and Shostakowitz. (Waxman with Stravinksy in 1960.)