Emmy-nominated and eight-time ASCAP award-winning composer Craig Safan has scored feature films, television, and documentaries as well as having three albums of his own music released. He has been commissioned to compose for ballet as well as for live performance of silent films and was given the Poledouris Film Music Legend Award at the International Film Music Festival in Cordoba, Spain. Safan’s music has been released on over fifty albums, most recently “L . A . Ex”, Craig's love letter to Los Angeles, released on Notefornote Music.
Safan has composed the scores for the classic “The Last Starfighter”, the iconic “Nightmare on Elm Street IV”, as well such diverse films as “Stand and Deliver”, “Mr. Wrong”, “Remo Williams”, “The Legend of Billie Jean”, “Warning Sign”, “Fade to Black”, and “Major Payne”.
For television Safan composed the music for the multi Emmy-winning series “Cheers” plus “Amazing Stories”, “The New Twilight Zone”, and “Tales from the Crypt” as well as the Emmy-winning mini-series “Son of the Morning Star” and “Mission of the Shark”. Safan also scored the top-selling National Geographic documentary “Secrets of the Titanic” and the Oscar-nominated documentary “The California Reich”.
Safan began his musical career while still in college arranging albums for Warner Brothers Records. He was awarded both the Senior Prize in Music as well as the Senior Prize in Drama and received the Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship to pursue his music work in Europe.
Reviews:
"Sirens: Music Inspired by Homer’s ‘Odyssey’"
"Sirens is a wondrous experience that serves as another example of Safan’s compositional abilities. "
(Film Score Monthly)
"Craig Safan recreates a world, or more worlds, even, that me as a listener become part of. The way he mixes sounds and different instruments, some electronic, other orchestral, simply works. The complexity of this work, the multiple layers of music and emotion, the dreamy state, the questions, everything works and lights up my imagination; I want sequels, I want to hear and explore more from this world. If you want to hear something different and discover an artist’s own vision about a legendary story, do not miss this album."
(Soundtrack Dreams)
“The Kid”
“One of the masterpieces of that era, Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, met up with new music specially composed by Craig Safan (whose long list of credits includes Stand and Deliver and The Last Starfighter, to name only two) for an event that was both revelatory and unforgettable.” (Theater Jones).
“Rough Magic: Music Inspired by the Paleolithic Cave Paintings of Europe”
"The disc’s rough but seductive magic resides in evocation, in the way Safan combines archetypal sounds to create conceptions where melody and rhythm inhabit spaces beyond cognition." (Fanfare Magazine)
“The Last Starfighter”
“This extremely enjoyable score (with a kick-ass main theme) shouldn’t be missed by anyone.” (Films on Wax)
“Warning Sign”
“There is a timelessness to Safan’s polished compositions, which continue to provide fresh listening experiences. (“Warning Sign”) is a great example of what an absolutely incredible range of emotion Craig Safan wrings out of his synths.” (Film Score Monthly)