Lucas Vidal (born 1984) is a two time Goya Award winning Spanish composer, conductor, and record producer. Vidal became the youngest Berklee College of Music student ever to compose and record the score to a feature film with a full orchestra, and he is best known for composing the score for the 2013 film Fast & Furious 6.
Life
Lucas Vidal was born and grew up in Madrid. His father is also a musician, and his grandfather was one of the founders of the record company Hispavox. He began studying piano and flute at age 4. When he was 16 years old, he went to Berklee College of Music for a summer term to play sax and was introduced to the film scoring department. Vidal decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a film composer. He met his business partner, Steve Dzialowski, and decided to create a company, Music and Motion Productions, while attending Berklee. Vidal made history when he became the youngest Berklee College of Music student ever to compose and record the score to a feature film with a full orchestra. Hundreds of recording sessions and dozens of movie scores, commercial music jobs, video game soundtracks and ballet scores later, Vidal is getting his biggest-ever assignments.[1] After studying with a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, he received his bachelor's degree with Summa Cum Laude and moved to New York City, where he studied at Juilliard and worked on some TV movies for NBC Universal and European projects. Then he decided to move to Los Angeles.
Vidal's career was kicked into high gear in 2011 when he was nominated for Breakout Composer of the Year by the International Film Music Critics Association for the film “Sleep Tight” ("Mientras Duermes”). In 2012, he composed the musical score for Fast & Furious 6.
Other recent projects include The Raven with John Cusack and The Cold Light of Day starring Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, resulting in a nomination for “Discovery of the Year” at the World Soundtrack Awards
In December[when?], Lucas Vidal conducts the official Christmas concert at the Teatro Real in Madrid, playing music by John Williams and his original music too.
He won the Goya for Best Score for the movie Endless Night.
Personal life
He lives in Los Angeles and splits his time between his self-made Music and Motion Productions Studios in Venice, California, and Madrid, Spain. In an interview, he said: “Hollywood has zero glamour for me,” he says. “You work a lot. I get up very early, I go to the studio, I eat in front of the computer, I carry on working and then go to sleep. Only on Tuesdays do I let myself play ping-pong at a club.”[3] At the age of 20, Vidal was diagnosed with cancer. During his chemotherapy treatment, which he underwent in Madrid, he could only think about two things: eating snails and composing film music and finally overcame cancer after three months of chemotherapy.
In an interview with Benoit Basirico he said that he had relationships with other Spanish composers: "I have a really good relationship with all the Spanish composers. We are a very small community. I am a close friend of Javier Navarrete and was so sad when he moved back to Spain last year. I am so happy he is doing so well, though. I love Alberto Iglesias, who I consider a genius. He is also the nicest and most humble person I know.” and talked about other composers “I am a big fan of Alexandre Desplat, I think his music is simply amazing and his range of scores is surreal. He is a true composer before being a film composer. I like Alan Silvestri a lot, too. I conducted at the Boston Symphony Hall with him a couple of months ago, and I must say that he is a wonderful person.”[4]