Damon Criswell – Composer

Damon Criswell is known for creating emotionally engaging, yet intellectual film scores, the symphonic or the intriguingly intimate - subtle distinctions with lyrical themes or convoluted ones with juxtaposed textures. He is tenacious and easily shifts gears into jazz, world music, rock, pop and other progressive styles.He has scored the films "Ocean Front Property," a feature comedy and winner of seven film festivals. He wrote the score for the one-hour drama "Dreamcatcher" which received Official Selection 2000 at the Cannes Film Festival and Best in Category at the 2000 New York Film Festival. He has also written the music for numerous film trailers for BLOCKBUSTER, Inc. including "Eye See You" starring Sylvester Stallone, "Desert Saints" starring Kiefer Sutherland and "Harvard Man" starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Some of his other movies include "Pale Blue Moon" which won Best Texas Feature at the 2002 Deep Ellum Film Festival and "Inhumanity," a fast action urban suspense thriller starring Todd Bridges (Different Strokes) and Faizon Love (Torque). On the Gospel music scene, Damon has recorded national artists Fred Hammond and the duo Anointed. His music was also recently used in Saturday Night Live.As an alumnus of the University of North Texas where he studied classical piano with internationally acclaimed pianist Pamela Mia Paul, Damon holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Arranging. After college, he performed with the contemporary jazz group Fingerprints for several years, opening for The Rippingtons, Larry Carlton, Richard Eliot, Jonathan Butler and Tower of Power. Of Damon's jazz compositions, his piece "Whisper" appeared on two of Fingerprints' albums and the song received top 20 status on the Jazz Charts.Damon is also a graduate of the nationally recognized Booker T. Washington High School for The Performing and Visual Arts where he played with Roy Hargrove (jazz trumpeter). He received numerous awards from DownBeat Magazine as a pianist and composer.