Name Mark Slater Parents Christopher Slater | Role Film composer Albums Natural Selection | |
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Music director 400 Years of the Telescope, Flatland, Swan Cake | ||
Mark Andrew Slater (born 1 April 1969) is a British film composer, conductor, cellist and pianist.
Contents
Early years
Slater was born in Reigate, England into a musical family. His father Christopher Slater, a professional conductor and organist, was a professor at Royal College of Music in London. Slater started playing the Cello and Piano at the age of 5. His early musical gifts earned him a scholarship as a chorister in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Slater got another scholarship this time to one of the oldest schools in the UK, Oakham School. After Oakham School Slater studied composition at London College of Music and techniques for composing for film at the Ealing Studios (1998). Slater studied with Nick Ingman and Rodney Newton.
Recent years
Debut as concert pianist in 1998 at the Dorking Halls performing Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Slater has worked on several films, documentaries, plays, and concert commissions over the last several years since 1998. Slater worked briefly with David Arnold on The Musketeer (2001). In 2007 Slater composed music for the Philips Aurea website. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with members of the London Symphony Orchestra.
In 2005 Slater was a runner-up in the Gary Garritan Competition.
In 2008 Slater scored the music for 400 Years of the Telescope, a PBS special for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, with the London Symphony Orchestra. This also involved a related fulldome video project, Two Small Pieces of Glass, which became the most played planetarium fulldome film shown for the next 3 years. This marked the start of several projects for the fulldome world, which includes nearly 1000 theaters around the world. In 2010, Mark scored Natural Selection, a fulldome film from Mirage 3D, produced by Robin Sip about Charles Darwin. This score was recorded in Budapest with the Budapest Film Orchestra and won an award for Best Audio at the Imiloa Fulldome Film Festival in Hawaii.
In 2011, Slater scored further fulldome films for Planetarium Hamburg and Morehead Planetarium and Immersive Entertainment work for Evans & Sutherland. Other notable work has included the multi-award winning animation short Broken Wing and other shorts, independent features and documentaries.
In 2013, Slater recorded with members of the Prague Philharmonic for another Mirage 3D fulldome film, Dinosaurs at Dusk.
Films
Documentary
Theatre
Concert Commissions
Songs
Island Galaxy
Coelacanths
Undeniable Evidence
Down House
Galapagos Creatures
Kent
Publishing & The Cell
Earthquake & Arrival
Albatross
Sea Shanty
The Tree of Life
Exploring the Theory