George Duning – a Mentor Remembered.

In 1966, our family friend and neighbor in La Canada Flintridge, California, five time Academy Award nominee composer George Duning, took me to the old scoring stage at what was then Warner/Reprise to watch him record the score for ANY WEDNESDAY, starring Jane Fonda, Jason Robards and Dean Jones. That was the life changing moment: “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” It took time going from college to combat, back to college and many years on the road as a conductor, but eleven years later, I had my first film scoring assignment under my own name (I had been ghostwriting for other composers for a while) and fourteen years later, I was orchestrating for George Duning! SIDEBAR: Dan Wallin was the scoring mixer! We worked on many scores together as my career progressed.  Dan has two Academy Award nominations and one Emmy Award and two nominations.