Sonny Kompanek
Sonny Kompanek
Adjunct Professor, Composition
Sonny Kompanek has orchestrated more than 70 feature films and had compositions played by the major orchestras of New York, Boston, Montreal, Milwaukee, Rochester, Atlanta, and Portland, among others. He has written for a wide variety of artists ranging from Wynton Marsalis to Soul Asylum, Boyz II Men to the Canadian Brass.
As a pianist, in addition to having his own trio, Kompanek worked with Mel Torme, Diahann Carroll, Joe Williams, Shirley MacLaine, Chuck Mangione, and Buddy DeFranco.
After moving to New York in 1977, he began arranging and orchestrating for film composer Michael Small and, later, Carter Burwell. He went on to work with many other composers, including Howard Shore, Michael Kamen, John Powell, Elliot Goldenthal, Wynton Marsalis, Wyclef Jean, and Cy Coleman. Most recently, he orchestrated the films The Finest Hours and Hail Caesar for composer Carter Burwell.
He taught freshman and sophomore theory while at The Eastman School and more recently film scoring at New York University, the Mannes/New School, and most recently, Brooklyn College, as well as many private film scoring students. He is the author of a highly acclaimed book on film scoring, From Score to Screen, published by Schirmer Trade Books.
Kompanek has been a guest lecturer in film scoring at the NYU/ASCAP Foundation Film Scoring Workshop and most recently a guest speaker for a film scoring workshop at the University of Tulsa music school.
He received a bachelor of music degree from West Virginia University and a master of music degree from The Eastman School, where he was awarded a full scholarship. He studied composition with Thomas Canning and Samuel Adler, and piano with James Miltenberger and Brooks Smith.
