Alumni Profile: Thomas Schmölz

Music has been a part of Thomas Schmölz’s life for as long as he can remember. While other people primarily explore the world with their eyes, Schmölz emphasizes that he has always considered himself a “person of the ear”: “It has always felt to me as though I experience the world more through my ears than through my eyes.”

With a team of freelance composers, copists, sound designers, sound engineers, film and music scholars, and with the support of film editors and film archives across Europe, Schmölz produces silent film music in various ensemble sizes—from small ensembles to large orchestras. Just this past spring, after two years of work with an 8-member team, he completed the score production for the internationally acclaimed restoration project of the nearly seven-and-a-half-hour-long mammoth film “Napoleon – vue par Abel Gance.” The world premiere, featuring the new score by Simon Cloquet Lafollye with over 250 performers in the orchestra and choir, will take place on July 4 and 5 at La Seine Musicale near Paris.