Dr. Norman Ludwin (born 3 November 1956; age 67) is a bassist, composer, orchestrator, and teacher who worked as bassist on the first seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager as well as on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. More recently, he worked as bassist on Star Trek and as additional orchestrator on Star Trek Into Darkness.
Born in Sherman Oaks, Ludwin attended the California Institute of Arts where he graduated with a bachelors degree in Performance in 1977. Following several years als musician, mostly as bassist, he continued his studies and received his masters degree in Composition from the California State University at Northridge in 2003. He completed his studies in 2007 when he earned his doctorate in composition from the Claremont Graduate University.
As performer, Ludwin worked with the Mozart Camerata, the South Bay Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony in the Glen, the San Diego Symphony, LA Chamber Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, LA Opera, Pacific Symphony, Pasadena Symphony and the Long Beach Symphony as well as the Florida Symphony and the Natal Philharmonic in Durban South Africa. Beside working as instructor and teacher at the UCLA Extension Film Music Department and at the Claremont Community School of Music, he has also released two CDs and owns the world's largest catalog of double bass music at his website, Ludwin Music.
Working in the film and television business since 1985, Ludwin has performed in the soundtracks for television series such as Space: Above and Beyond (1995, starring Lanei Chapman and Tucker Smallwood), JAG (1995-1996), Superman (1997-1998), King of the Hill (1997-1999, starring the voices of Pamela Adlon and Stephen Root), J.J. Abrams' Alias (2001-2002), Las Vegas (2003-2004, starring Nikki Cox), Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci's Fringe (2008-2009, music by Michael Giacchino), Lost (2004-2010, starring Daniel Dae Kim and Terry O'Quinn), Undercovers (2010-2012), and Alcatraz (2012, starring Leon Rippy).
Film work include Cobra (1986), Innerspace (1987), Little Nikita (1988), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Dick Tracy (1990), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991), Alien 3 (1992), Batman Returns (1992), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), Free Willy (1993), Demolition Man (1993), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), The River Wild (1994), A Walk in the Clouds (1995), The Net (1995), Mission: Impossible (1996), The Nutty Professor (1996), Scream 2 (1997), The Horse Whisperer (1998), Godzilla (1998), Psycho (1998) and Wild Wild West (1999), The Green Mile (1999), Galaxy Quest (1999), X-Men (2000), Scary Movie 2 (2001), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), Kirk Thatcher's The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005), Monster-in-Law (2005), Serenity (2005), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Priest (2011), Super 8 (2011), Cars 2 (2011), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), and John Carter (2012).
More recently, Ludwin performed as bassist on the animated short film Toy Story of Terror (2013), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and Jupiter Ascending (2015) and worked as orchestrator on Inside Out (2015). In the more recent years, Ludwin normally worked for composer and orchestrator Michael Giacchino.
External links[]
- LudwinMusic.com – official site
- Norman Ludwin at the Internet Movie Database
- Norman Ludwin at MyMusicMasterClass.com