Published: Mar 23, 2010
A BA (Hons) Music graduate who wrote the score for the award-winning US documentary My Big Break has added another production to his growing CV.
David Ben Shannon, 22, devised the music for the recent LIPA production of the Polly Teale drama After Mrs Rochester.
Directed by LIPA lecturer Gillian Lemon, After Mrs Rochester is about the tortured author Jean Rhys, who became obsessed with the character Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre.
David graduated from LIPA in 2008 and ploughed much of his creative energy into My Big Break, a documentary about four struggling actors in LA. The film won Best Documentary at the Boston Film Festival in the US and was nominated for the same accolade at the Raindance Film Festival in London. Fellow LIPA music graduate Luke Jennings performed many of the instrumental parts of the score.
“It's amazing being back at LIPA. I had so many great teachers here, and it's just nice to see people again,” explained David, who set up a studio at his home in New Brighton, Wirral.
He describes the piano and cello-based music he created for After Mrs Rochester as “quiet, gentle and evocative with occasional bursts of madness".
“For me, the key is watching a production as it rehearses, seeing how the actors perform, watching the direction. A script can be interpreted in so many ways, so I don't usually find the text too helpful,” he said.
David, who attended St. Anselm’s College in Birkenhead, started playing the piano at the age of eight and went on to take a GCSE and an A-Level in music.
David also collaborates locally with Liverpool’s Lodestar Theatre Company and has a growing portfolio of work for the stage, online productions, shorts, and live events.
“Career-wise, I just want keep on doing as many different things as possible: composing for different mediums, playing, teaching,” he said.
However, his main goal is to continue working in film.
In 2010, David, a keen fan of Japanese anime, was selected to attend the Berlinale Talent Campus for young filmmakers in Germany.
*For further information please visit www.davidbenshannon.co.uk www.mybigbreakmovie.com and www.lodestartheatre.co.uk