10.5

10.5 was a 2004 NBC television mini-series directed by John Lafia (CHILD’S PLAY 2, MAN’S BEST FRIEND, THE RATS, episodes of BABYLON 5, FREDDIE’S NIGHTMARES, THE DEAD ZONE), who is also co-credited with the screenplay along with Christopher Canaan (WALKER TEXAS RANGER, BRIDGE OF TIME) and Ronnie Christensen (PASSENGERS, DARK RIDE, INCARNATE). The mini-series was acclaimed for its visual effects, and deservedly so. From the toppling of Seattle’s Space Needle, a passenger train swallowed up by a giant crack in the earth, and the Golden Gate Bridge collapse to the film’s catastrophic 10.5 earthquake which separates a large portion of California’s southwestern coast to float off into the Pacific.

By the time he composed 10.5 in 2004, Lee Holdridge had 34 years of experience composing music for films and television. Holdridge’s experience scoring for television, in particular, had given him a reputation as a competent and dependable composer. It was his association with NBC television that brought him in to score 10.5. Holdridge had scored a handful of dramatic mini-series prior to 10.5, mostly historical subjects, but his 1999 NBC mini-series ATOMIC TRAIN, an action thriller about a disposal company transporting an atomic bomb who conceals the device on a freight train to save money, gave him a chance to flex his action movie chops.

Holdridge had been primarily an orchestral composer when it came to film scoring and higher-budgeted TV movies and mini-series, but 10.5 didn’t have the budget for a fully orchestral score. This was the era where television production companies didn’t have the kind of budgets that permitted full orchestras, so the bulk of 10.5’s score was recorded via MIDI. But Holdridge did manage to bring in a few live instruments to sweeten an otherwise electronic score. Most of the score was performed recording digital instruments into MIDI, allowing Holdridge and Robert Irving to manipulate the sounds and give the disaster music its proportional sonic size. The electronic foundation of 10.5’s score benefits from Holdridge’s experience as an orchestral composer and conductor when it came to realizing an authentic orchestral sound via digital means.

Lee Holdridge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1944. He spent his early years in Costa Rica, beginning music studies on the violin at the age of ten with Hugo Mariani, then the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. Later, Holdridge moved to New York to continue his music studies and begin his professional career as a composer. Holdridge’s successes in New York came to the attention of Neil Diamond who brought Holdridge to Los Angeles to write arrangements for his forthcoming albums. A string of Gold and Platinum hits followed, which led to Diamond and Holdridge collaborating on the film score for JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL. Since that time, Holdridge has scored numerous film such as SPLASH, BIG BUSINESS, MR. MOM, MICKI & MAUDE, 16 DAYS OF GLORY, SYLVESTER, A TIGER’S TALE, EL PUEBLO DEL SOL, OLD GRINGO, PASTIME and BROTHERS AT WAR. His television work include MOONLIGHTING, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the complete eight hour remake of EAST OF EDEN, DREAMER OF OZ, Hallmark Hall Of Fame’s ONE AGAINST THE WIND and THE STORY LADY. Lee also began a very successful collaboration with Moriah Films, the film division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, with the Academy Award winning documentary feature film THE LONG WAY HOME. In addition to his film career, Mr. Holdridge has had an extensive repertoire of concert works performed and recorded. He has also worked with many major recording artists having written, arranged and conducted for Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, Brian May of Queen, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, John Denver, Neil Sedaka, Daniel Rodriguez, Al Jarreau, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, Jane Oliver and many others.

Dragon’s Domain Records is excited to bring 10.5 to compact disc for the first time, mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland under the composer’s supervision. The booklet includes exclusive liner notes written by author Randall Larson with the participation of the composer.