BY LOUISE R. SHAW
Clipper Staff Writer
KAYSVILLE — Daniel Anderegg considers himself the luckiest guy on earth.
“I get to do what I love,” he said.
Anderegg has always loved music and been interested in soundtracks for movies and television.
For eight weeks now, he has been combining his loves as he works as an intern in Los Angeles with the musicians who compose those soundtracks.
Anderegg graduated with a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Utah before earning a master’s degree in Film Music Composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston, Salem, N. C.
He was one of 40 selected from 1,000 applicants to fill an eight-week internship through the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation, the charity arm of the group that puts on the Emmys. His internship runs through mid-November.
As an intern, he works with and learns from composers who create soundtracks for television and movies.
“I get to do a whole vast array of things to help the machine move forward,” said Anderegg. “Anything that helps the composer.”
Composers are given what has already been filmed and work “all day long” to fit music to it, he said. He has worked with five different composers and is impressed by how they work together in a “huge network.” He has also been impressed to see the collaboration between composers and directors.
“Each composer has their own voice and people seek them out for that voice,” he said. At the same time, directors will guide the composers to ensure the ideas and the emotions match what they are looking for.
The Los Angeles internship has “taken the mystery out of writing soundtrack, said Anderegg, and allowed him the chance to compose a bit as well. He’s worked on both network and reality television shows. A highlight of his internship has been the chance to assist in several recording sessions at Fox Studios with composer Alf Clausen of the TV show the Simpson’s, he said.
“That is the chance of a lifetime,” he said. “The best musicians in the business are there.”
Anderegg has also composed what is known as source music, the kind that is used behind the scenes, such as when a character walks into a store at Christmas and there is a piano playing in the background.
He’s met with David Vanacore, the composer whose business writes scores for Survivor and 40 other reality and cable television shows, and with Snuffy Walden, who writes the scores for Friday Night Lights.
“The feedback’s been great,” he said. “It’s not easy,” he added. “It’s really hard work.”
Anderegg’s wife, Corinne, is a Kaysville native and the daughter of Clark and Sherrie Rampton of Kaysville. The Andereggs have lived in Kaysville off and on.
Though he had first planned a career in piano performance, a genetic arthritic condition made it harder for Daniel Anderegg to perform on the piano, but brought him to this new opportunity.
“For me, composing was a better musical outlet,” he said. “I always loved the soundtracks in film and television and I have loved writing and collaborating with other people. If not a pianist, I can be happy as a composer,” he said.
The internship program provided by the academy foundation gives college and graduate students from across the country in-depth exposure to professional television production.
Before his internship began, Anderegg wrote the score for a spaghetti western called the Dark Rider, which premiered this month in Utah.
Anderegg’s work can be heard on YouTube by searching dansmusicvideos. He was in Utah to conduct the choirs and orchestra for a multi-denominational Thanksgiving Prayer Service in the Alpine Tabernacle. The performance was to include Anderegg’s arrangement of the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.”
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