John Lissauer

John Lissauer is an American music producer, instrumentalist, and composer. In the 1970s he became known for producing and arranging New Skin for the Old Ceremony by Leonard Cohen,^[1] and has since arranged, produced, or conducted for artists such as Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Luther Vandross and Loudon Wainwright III.^[2]

He has won a number of Clio Awards for commercial soundtracks,^[2] and his 1975 score for La Tete de Normande St. Onge won a Canadian Academy Award for "Best Original Score in a Motion Picture." More recently, he has composed the scores for films such as The Last Godfather, End Call, Pokémon: The First Movie and Apartment 1303. He operates the Katonah Mill Studio on a farm in Westchester, New York.

Music career

John Lissauer graduated with a degree in music composition from Yale University, where he also focused on woodwind instrumentals.^[2] He moved to New York in 1971.^[1] According to Lissauer, his first big gig happened when he was nineteen, when he was brought on to arrange and produce jazz singer Al Jarreau's first recordings.^[2]

After having worked with artists such as Lewis Furey and The Manhattan Transfer in his early twenties,^[3] Lissauer went on to produce and arrange the 1974 album New Skin for the Old Ceremony by Leonard Cohen.^[1] From 1974 through 1976, Cohen toured with a band led by Lissauer, first in Europe and then the US and Canada.^[3] Ten years later Lissauer also produced, arranged, and conducted Cohen's album Various Positions,^[4] which was well received in Rolling Stone, who singled out Lissauer's "lucid and beautiful production."^[3] That album contained three of Cohen's most popular songs, including the seminal recording of "Hallelujah," one of the most recorded songs in American pop music history. Between his work for Cohen and Bette Midler, Lissauer has worked on four gold records.^[2] Among other artists he has arranged or produced for are Whitney Houston, Mary Fahl, Tony Bird and Ayo.^[2]

Lissauer has also composed, arranged, or conducted the scores for numerous films, and his 1975 score for La Tete de Normande St. Onge won a Canadian Academy Award for "Best Original Score in a Motion Picture." More recently, he has composed the scores for such films as The Last Godfather, End Call, Pokémon: The First Movie and Apartment 1303, and he orchestrated and arranged both the scores for Seven and That Thing You Do for Howard Shore.^[2] Since age 21 he has scored over 2000 radio and TV commercials, and has won a number of Clio Awards, including the "Campaign Of The Decade" award for his work on Polaroid with James Garner. ^[2]

Lissauer has composed and conducted for orchestras in New York, Hollywood, London, Paris, Prague and Toronto,^[2] and is also a woodwind player with various local symphonies around New York. He has taught music at both Yale and Kingsborough Community College.^[2]

Personal life

Lissauer and his wife, Lilian,^[1] have a son, Greg and live in Westchester, New York.^[2] On his farm he operates The Katonah Mill Studio; the digital 96-track recording facilities^[2] are less than an hour from Midtown Manhattan, and groups that have recorded there come from genres as diverse as heavy metal, avant garde big band, choir and gospel, string quartet, and classical guitar.^[5]

Discography

Production credits

Year	Title	Artist	Producer	Arranger	Conductor
1974	New Skin for the Old Ceremony	Leonard Cohen	Y	Y
1975	Lewis Furey	Lewis Furey	Y	Y	Y
1976	T-Shirt	Loudon Wainwright		Y
1976	Songs for the New Depression	Bette Midler		Y	Y
1978	Bird of Paradise	Tony Bird	Y	Y	Y
1978	Final Exam	Loudon Wainwright	Y	Y
1979	The Sky is Falling	Lewis Furey	Y	Y	Y
1980s	Leata	Leata Galloway	Y	Y	Y
1984	Various Positions	Leonard Cohen	Y	Y	Y
1999	The Embrace	Clara Ponty	Y	Y
2003	The Other Side of Time	Mary Fahl		Y	Y
2005	In The Presence	Daniel Rodriguez		Y	Y
2006	Blue Alert	Anjani Thomas		Y
2006	Joyful	Ayo	Y	Y
2011	Ten Feet Deep	Ten Feet Deep	Y	Y
2013	Love & Gravity	Mary Fahl	Y	Y

Soundtracks

Year	Movie title	Director	Composer	Arranger	Conductor	Producer
1975	La Tete de Normande St. Onge	Gilles Carle	Y
1977	L'ange et la Femme	Gilles Carle	Y
1977	Rubber Gun	Alan Moyle	Y
1978	Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang	Theodore J. Flicker		Y
1980	Fantastica	Gilles Carle	Y
1990	Pump Up the Volume	Alan Moyle				Y
1995	Seven	David Fincher		Y
1996	Managua	Mikele Taverna	Y	Y	Y	Y
1996	Looking for Richard	Al Pacino		Y
1996	That Thing You Do!	Tom Hanks		Y
1998	Pokemon: The First Movie	Kunihiko Yuyama	Y
1998	Flood: A River's Rampage	Bruce Pittman	Y
1999	Pokemon 2000	Kunihiko Yuyama	Y
2003	Gods and Generals	Ronald F. Maxwell		Y		Y
2005	David & Layla	Jay Jonroy	Y	Y	Y	Y
2005	Supernova	John Harrison	Y		Y
2007	Apartment 1303	Ataru Oikawa	Y	Y	Y	Y
2008	End Call	Kiyoshi Yamamoto	Y	Y	Y	Y
2009	Watchmen (track "Hallejuh" by Leonard Cohen)	Zack Snyder		Y	Y	Y
2010	The Last Godfather	Hyung-rae Shim	Y	Y	Y	Y
2012	So This Is Christmas	Richard Foster	Y	Y	Y	Y
2013	Dark Disciple	Allan Caggiano	Y	Y	Y	Y

References

External links

• JohnLissauer.com