Biography
Geoffrey Pope has been recognized through numerous appointments, awards, and commissions throughout the United States and Europe. Formally trained as a conductor and composer, he navigates careers in the commercial music industry as well as the concert music world.
From an early age, he developed an interest in film music parallel to concert music—and found these pursuits to complement one another. Similarly, his ongoing work as a conductor and orchestrator has been strengthened by his composition studies. Uniting these skills in the commercial music industry has provided unique opportunities that would not have been possible otherwise.
Applying the tools he developed in his studies at USC, Eastman, and UCLA to helping composers and studios—through session conducting, orchestration, and musicological support—his work in the music industry is far-reaching. His orchestration clients range from new voices and production music libraries to A-list film composers, sometimes working in a discreet capacity. He regularly orchestrates for composer Deron Johnson, on projects including The Prank (starring Rita Moreno), for which he also served as score supervisor, and a series of successful narrative podcasts for QCode Media featuring actors such as Matthew McConaughey, Demi Moore, and Richard Madden.
Since 2017, he has worked on many high-profile music cases as a primary music associate with Judith Finell MusicServices, developing a fluency with music copyright in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and advocating for composers’ intellectual property rights. He works independently for composers and studios in temp track infringement risk assessment and performs musical research for production companies including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Apple+, and composers working for Netflix and Warner Bros. He has also been an independent consultant for music supervisors including GMS award-winner Season Kent of Full Pursuit Media.
His professional memberships include the Society of Composers and Lyricists, Association of Independent Music Publishers, California Copyright Conference, American Musicological Society, and ASCAP.
He received his undergraduate degree in composition and theory from USC, master’s degrees in conducting and composition from the Eastman School of Music, and a doctorate in conducting from UCLA. As a performing conductor, he leads the Beach Cities Symphony in Southern California and freelances with other ensembles. As an educator, he conducts the UC Irvine Symphony Orchestra and Opera, where he is a lecturer and also teaches orchestration.
Concert music conducting engagements include many performances and premieres of works of living composers. Most recently, he led the Aztec opera El Circo Anahuac (David Reyes) in its first staged performance, recorded Noah Meites’ Cadere and Counting for upcoming release, and Michael Kim-Sheng’s album Heavy Moon. In the past several years, in addition to symphonic pieces, he has conducted opera and music theatre works including Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss, Jr.), Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (first English language performance in Hungary), Mansfield Park (Jonathan Dove), Così fan Tutte (Mozart), Down in the Valley (Kurt Weill), and a multimedia performance of Oswaldo Golijov’s Ayre at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Prior to this, he led an acclaimed production of The Rape of Lucretia (Benjamin Britten) with “energy and flair” (Boston Classical Review), conducting a “warm and expressive rendering of Britten’s complicated score” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). He has conducted works of major composers in celebrations and masterclasses with those composers in attendance, including John Adams, Oliver Knussen, Tristan Murail, Hilary Tann, and Steven Stucky. In 2010, he recorded Benjamin Boretz’ Violin Concerto with Tchaikovsky Medal-winner Charles Castleman for the OpenSpace label.
Other interests include Hollywood émigré composers of the 1930s and 40s, audio spatialization of diegetic music, and aviation. He resides in Los Angeles.
If you would like to know more, please be in touch via the contact form, call +1 (323) 334-0747, or email directly at geoffrey@geoffreypopemusic.com.
For concert music inquiries, visit GeoffreyPopeMusic.com.