An Iowa-Trained Musician Leads Orchestra Dedicated to Film Scores
PHOTO: KEVIN PARRY
Iowa alumnus Scott Dunn's orchestra dedicated to film scores performs at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California.
Iconic movies like Jaws, The Godfather, and the Harry Potter series have one thing in common: engrossing film music. Without it, they wouldn’t be the same.
Yet music from movies has traditionally been overlooked by orchestras.
Scott Dunn (75BM, 81MD)—an internationally renowned pianist, conductor, and orchestrator—aims to bring what has often been regarded as background music to the forefront with his new film music orchestra. The Scott Dunn Orchestra launched last year in conjunction with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California. The SDO has the express mission to celebrate film scores—and to draw new audiences to orchestral music.
“For too long, especially for classical music, there was this highfalutin attitude that audiences and performers should just suffer through it,” says Dunn. At his concerts, he seeks to make programs enjoyable for musicians and audiences alike.
Originally from Eagle Grove, Iowa, Dunn graduated with honors and a Bachelor of Music after only five semesters at Iowa. Hoping to start a career as a concert pianist, he entered several international piano competitions. “I wasn’t quite ready for primetime,” he says. “I got very discouraged.”
Dunn changed course, finishing premed at the University of Southern California and receiving a Doctor of Medicine at Iowa. He returned to California to complete a residency and board certification in ophthalmology at USC. Then a chance encounter brought him permanently back to music.
Dunn was practicing ophthalmology in Los Angeles when he met Leonard Rosenman, an Academy Award-winning film composer known for his scores for East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause. Rosenman had come to tour Dunn’s home, which was on the market. Spotting virtuosic sheet music on Dunn’s Steinway piano, Rosenman told the broker, “I thought you told me this guy was a doctor! He looks like a real musician.”
When the two met, Rosenman urged Dunn to reenter music competitions. Dunn went on to win several, including one with the U.S. State Department that awarded him a solo tour through the Soviet Union.
After returning to the States, Dunn moved back to New York to pursue a master’s at the Manhattan School of Music. In New York, he made connections and studied with musical luminaries such as Lukas Foss, Byron Janis, and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett—all of whom continue to inspire Dunn.
Dunn is a frequent guest conductor throughout the U.S. and U.K. and commutes between Los Angeles and New York. Still, he remains grateful for his home state. He and his husband, Robert Moray, are proud supporters of the University of Iowa who are particularly enthused about the UI School of Music and Hancher Auditorium, which work to expose the Hawkeye community to world-class art.
If aspiring musicians take one thing away from his story, Dunn says, “You find out where you want to go by going.”