American composer/conductor Justin Freer was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California. He has quickly become a highly sought-after conductor and producer of film music concerts around the world. He began formal studies on trumpet, but quickly turned to piano and composition, writing his first work at the age of 11. He made his professional conducting debut at age 16. He has composed music for world-renowned trumpeters Doc Severinsen and Jens Lindemann and is in demand as a composer and conductor for orchestral works to chamber music.
Mr. Freer has served as composer for several independent films and has written motion picture advertising music for some of 20th Century Fox Studios’ biggest campaigns, including Avatar, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Dragonball Evolution, and Aliens in the Attic. As a conductor he has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He made his Philadelphia Orchestra debut in 2014.
Mr. Freer has been recognized with grants and awards from organizations including ASCAP, BMI, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and the Henry Mancini Estate. He is the founder and president of CineConcerts, a company dedicated to the preservation and concert presentation of film, TV, and media music set to picture, with which he has produced, curated, and conducting hundreds of full-length music score performances live with film for such wide-ranging titles as Gladiator, The Godfather, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, It’s a Wonderful Life, and the entire Harry Potter film franchise. He also spent several years as one of the principal conductors for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in Concert and conducted the European concert run of Titanic. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition from UCLA where his principal composition teachers included Paul Chihara and Ian Krouse. In addition, he was mentored by legendary composer/conductor Jerry Goldsmith.