My job is to research each territory's anthem then reset, rearrange, rescore, rerecord, remix and reproduce it, and then deliver it to LOCOG to be used for the medal ceremonies in 2012. It's a long chain of things to achieve in a very short time. It's about 90 per cent creative and 10 per cent admin — and it's the admin that's the killer, and the bit we all worry about. No one at LOCOG has heard them yet — I'll hand them over when they're all finished and then I'll probably leave the country!
My day job is as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, but I'm having a few years out just now as a film composer in America, although I still live here. I mainly do film scores, but I've recently done a ballet and I've just finished a project with Juliette Binoche, which is now touring.
Researching each country has been brilliant but it's been a real challenge, as I've had to find each anthem myself. The upside is that my geography is now off the scale, so we've booked into a pub quiz at the end of the month. And we've found about six new places to go on holiday too — the Comoros Islands look very nice! It's been a very interesting way of seeing the world without leaving the room.
I think my biggest satisfaction will come when we win lots of medals, and I'll get to hear my version of our anthem, with our orchestra playing it. I've had to go through the same ticketing process as everybody else but I'm hoping I'll manage to see a medal ceremony live — it would mean a lot to me.
I don't follow sport but nothing beats the Olympic Games. Watching the Opening Ceremony of the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games really sticks in my mind. It was very music heavy and I think they did 'Rhapsody in Blue' with about 70 grand pianos.
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