Brad Fiedel’s iconic score for The Terminator shook up the world of film scoring and brought him international acclaim. Known for his innovation and unique use of combinations of acoustic and electronic sounds, Fiedel went on to create scores for a wide range of films including, Compromising Positions, The Big Easy, Fright Night, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Accused, Terminator 2, Blink and True Lies.
Fiedel was raised in the creative hothouse of his parent’s school of the arts on Long Island. He started writing and singing songs in his early teens and performed at clubs and colleges on the east coast opening for George Carlin, Andy Kaufman and others. He was signed to Paul Simon’s music publishing company in his early twenties and spent six months playing keyboards for Hall and Oates. Shortly after, he started writing music for films. His first scores were for independent films in New York including Apple Pie, Just Before Dawn and Deadly Hero.
After spending a few more years performing his original songs on the east and west coasts, Fiedel moved into film scoring full time and composed the music for a number of high profile television projects including Playing for Time, starring Vanessa Redgrave, screenplay by Arthur Miller, and The Bunker starring Anthony Hopkins. In 1983 Fiedel collaborated with Academy Award nominated songwriter Dory Previn on her musical anti-war statement, August 6, 1945, which was performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles with a cast including: Tyne Daly, Judd Hirsch, Thelma Houston and Bernadette Peters. The following year, James Cameron asked Fiedel to score The Terminator and his work in feature films took off.
Fiedel has created over one hundred original scores for film and television. He’s currently developing original projects for film, theater and the Internet. Borrowed Time, a one-man musical written and performed by Fiedel premiered at Center Stage Theater in Santa Barbara. An audio version of his musical Full Circle is now available on YouTube.