JOEL DIAMOND
Joel Diamond, based in New York City, has long and diverse experience as a composer, arranger, producer, and performer of serious and contemporary music. His varied career is noteworthy for an extraordinary array of eclectic choices and influences.
Selected by Variety as one of 20 Creatives to Watch, Diamond wrote the score for the immensely powerful film, The Believer, written and directed by Henry Bean. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Drama at Sundance, 2001, and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone singled out "Joel Diamond's haunting score." A review by Kirk Honeycutt in The Hollywood Reporter noted that "the craftsmanship is first-rate, especially a moody and edgy score by Joel Diamond."
Diamond's recent film project, Milarepa (Shining Moon Productions, 2006), directed by Neten Chokling, won the award last month for Best Spiritual Fiction Film at the European Spiritual Film Festival in Paris. He scored the documentary Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, which Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly designated one of the "10 Best Films for 2007."
He just completed composing the Music for "Kid Shamrock" a play which ran at the Atlantic Theater last month and just completed the short, "Black Box" which will be premiering at the Cannes Festival.
Currently he is completing Three Films, "Love Thing" Directed (M. Manetta featuring Jack Smith, and a Comedy, Not for Nothing, Directed by Matthew Bonifacio and a Sci-fi Thriller in post-production.
Among the many other films with scores by Diamond are The Junction (Icarus Films, 2004), directed by Ilan Ziv, which won first prize at the Haifa Film Festival; Stalin's Wife (Cinetron Productions & Myrabel Studios, 2004), directed by Slava Tsukerman (Liquid Sky); and Creating Karma (Fantasy Creature Films, 2006), written and directed by Jill Wisoff. Earlier film scores include those for The Suicide Club (Angelika Films, 1988), Heart of the Garden (PBS, 1985), Anima (Tangent Films, 1998), and The Dogwalker (Filmmakers Alliance, 2002).
The Theater for the New City commissioned a number of scores from Diamond for productions of Stone (written by Philip Courtney and directed by Eduardo Machado); Benny's Barber Shop (written and directed by Mark Marcante); Kiss the Cheek of the Moon (written by Yolanda Rodriguez); an adaptation of Oedipus by Jason Duchin; and his own The Baby Boomer (directed by Jill Wisoff).
His extensive work with Playwright, Director Imelda O'Reilly has produced many films and plays such as Emilita and the Faery Glen and Faz in Ate.and the recent award winning shorts,The Seamonster and the Milk Thistle and Bricks Beds and Sheep's Heads
As a composer of new music, Diamond has to his credit several chamber pieces that have been performed by the Apple Brass Quintet and Orquesta Nova. His string quartet, "Danza Caprichosa," recorded by Orquesta Nova (Chesky Records, 1991), received a Grammy nomination.
An early advocate of Cuban music, Diamond was commissioned by the Cuban National Ballet to compose four pieces. "Seasons," composed for the Compañía de la Danza Narciso Medina, premiered at the Guggenheim Museum in May 2003, as part of the museum's "Works & Process" series.
Ballet and theater companies have choreographed several other of his works: In January 2000, the Dance Theater Workshop presented Diamond's "urban" ballet, Leonard & Minky, choreographed by John Selya (Twyla Tharp, ABT) and narrated by Mayor Ed Koch; Suki John choreographed his ballet, "Diad," which appeared at the 92nd Street Y that same year. Diamond recently completed a ballet based on the book Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez; commissioned by Texas Christian University, the piece was choreographed by Suki John.
Drawing on his long experience as a studio producer, Diamond produced the scores for Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse (Sony Pictures and Polygram Records, 1995) and David Mamet's Oleanna (Hallmark Entertainment, 1994). This keyboard veteran has extensive experience as a studio and touring musician with Mick Taylor, Graham Parker, Jane Olivor, and dozens of others. A staff producer at Chesky Records for five years, Diamond produced albums for a diverse range of artists, among them Rebecca Pidgeon, Livingston Taylor, and Sarah K.
Diamond works in television as well. The television documentaries Terra Incognita: The Perils and Promise of Stem Cell Research (Kartemquin Films, 2007) and "Hijacked" (2006), an episode of the PBS series American Experience, feature music composed by Diamond. Another documentary, an episode of the PBS series Independent Lens, also has a score by Diamond: Milking the Rhino (Kartemquin Films, 2009) was written and directed by David E. Simpson.
Diamond provided additional music for the New York premiere at MOMA and Lincoln Center of the 2009 stop-motion animated feature $9.99.
