Berklee Celebrates 25th Annual BMI Day with Acclaimed Composer Trevor Gureckis Gureckis and BMI's Tracy McKnight presented the BMI Film Scoring Scholarship to student composer Melquiades lvarez Cobos.By
Tori Donahue
November 6, 2023
Left to right: Berklee Vice President and Executive Director Ron Savage; Screen Scoring Chair Sean McMahon; composer and producer Trevor Gureckis; student award winner Melquiades lvarez Cobos; BMI Vice President, Creative, Film, TV, and Visual Media Tracy McKnight; Berklee interim President and Provost David Bogen; and Berklee Vice President of Finance Jeffrey Sawada.
Image by Kelly Davidson
Composer and producer Trevor Gureckis leads a film scoring session with Berklee students for BMI Day.
Image by Kelly Davidson
Award-winning composer and producer Trevor Gureckis and BMI's Vice President, Creative, Film, TV, and Visual Media Tracy McKnight visited Berklee on Monday, November 6, to commemorate the college's annual BMI Day. At the event, McKnight and Screen Scoring Chair Sean McMahon copresented this year's BMI Film Scoring Scholarship to student composer Melquiades lvarez Cobos, currently in his seventh semester at Berklee.
The first BMI Film Scoring Scholarship was presented in 1998 by composer Michael Kamen. It is awarded each year to a student selected by the Screen Scoring Department based on the student's musical ability, financial need, and potential for career success.
The Screen Scoring Department's relationship with BMI is one of the most important relationships we have, and BMI Day is always a highlight for our department on campus, said McMahon. We are so grateful for all that BMI has done for Berklee's screen scoring students for almost 25 years, and appreciate Tracy's presence on campus to present the annual BMI award to Melquiades lvarez Cobos, a promising, up-and-coming composer.
BMI takes great pride in its longstanding relationship with Berklee College of Music and fostering the next generation of composers, said McKnight. We recognize the importance of access to quality education and resources in developing their careers and the BMI Film Scoring Scholarship underscores our commitment to investing in the future of student composers and to celebrate their achievements, their growth, and their contributions to the world of visual media.
I am so incredibly grateful to be the recipient of the BMI award this year and all the opportunities that come with it, said lvarez Cobos. These past couple of years have been truly stormy and difficult to overcome on a personal level, so I wanted to thank my mentors and teachers who have believed in me regardless-your support and guidance have meant the world to me. With this award, I am very excited to pursue my dream of further developing my skills in film and media scoring through production, orchestration, and composition work in Los Angeles.
About Melquiades lvarez CobosOriginally from Las Palmas in Spain's Canary Islands, Melquiades lvarez Cobos developed his love of music at the age of 6 when he first picked up the violin. He honed his skills through instruction from David Ballesteros and Miguel Borrego as a conservatory student. He originally studied biotechnology at Universidad Polit cnica de Madrid (UPM), but ultimately decided to follow his passion for music, enrolling at Berklee to study screen scoring. Upon his arrival at Berklee, lvarez Cobos was commissioned to write an orchestral piece for the Orquesta Maestro Valle in Spain. He signed to an artist agency as a producer and toured throughout the country, working on production camps hosted by Warner Music and Interscope. A true film enthusiast, he also composed the music for the film Morgan y los s per bichillos in 2022. Upon graduation, he hopes to work in the film and media scoring industry like his idol and Berklee alumnus Ramin Djawadi B.M. '98.
About Trevor GureckisTrevor Gureckis is an award-winning composer and producer based in New York City, with work that spans film, pop, and concert music genres. His music often draws on his classical and production background, fusing electronics and live instruments in unique ways. As a film composer, his music often ranges from thriller, horror, and epic drama. Most recently, Gureckis composed the score to the Apple TV+ drama The Crowded Room, starring Tom Holland and created by Akiva Goldsman. A frequent collaborator of M. Night Shyamalan, Gureckis has gone on to score four seasons of his hit Apple TV+ show Servant as well as his feature film Old (Universal). His score for Servant awarded him a BMI Film, TV, and Visual Media Award in 2022, and he was nominated for Best Original Horror Film Score for Old at the 2021 HMMA Awards.
Gureckis began work on his first AAA game project in 2021: the highly anticipated remake of the survival horror classic Dead Space by Electronic Arts and Motive Studios. Dead Space was released on next-generation consoles and PC in January 2023 to rave reviews. Other notable works include John Crowley's epic drama The Goldfinch (Warner Bros. Pictures), Neil Burger's sci-fi thriller Voyagers (Lionsgate), and Henry Jacobson's psychological horror film Bloodline (Blumhouse).
While Gureckis excels at composing for film and games, his musical work extends far beyond. He produced the electro-pop band My Great Ghost, which is featured on Beck's Philip Glass remix album, Rework. In 2019, Gureckis's solo album of instrumental and electronic music, Corte, was released on Supertrain Records. Gureckis is cofounder and executive creative director of Found Objects, a New York City-based artist collective and production company.
About BMICelebrating over 80 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers, and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a global leader in music ri
