Studio Soundtracks takes listeners behind the scenes of how music is crafted for film and television by hearing directly from composers, songwriters and music professionals in the Entertainment Industry. Listen to inspiring conversations about composition and hear works from Emmy, Grammy, and Oscar-winning film scores on the show.

JONGNIC “JB” BONTEMPS
Jongnic “JB” Bontemps is a uniquely modern film composer, harmonizing a classical education with his rich tech background. As a maestro of Silicon Valley he wrote everything from The CW sci-fi series 4400, the Netflix docuseries We Are: The Brooklyn Saints, Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker, the Netflix and Shondaland-produced documentary about the Debbie Allen Dance Company’s award-winning production of The Nutcracker, and the Netflix documentary Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story. He was recently nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award for his work in the 2021 Sundance documentary selection My Name Is Pauli Murray directed by Julie Cohen and Betsey West. He is known for his hip-hop infused score for the Tribeca-favorite documentary United Skates, to rousing additional music for the acclaimed film Creed II directed by Steven Caple Jr. He became the go-to composer for Caple Jr. while scoring his coming-of-age drama The Land, for which he also orchestrated the song “This Bitter Land” performed by Nas and Erykah Badu. JB’s other recent work includes the CNN special The People vs. The Klan, the dramatic feature Last Night in Rozzie directed by Sean Gannet, the CNN Films documentary Citizen Ashe that premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and the Netflix film Wedding Season. Up next for JB is the Arkane Studios video game Redfall and the highly anticipated addition to the action sci-fi franchise Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

JB has scored dozens of features, series and video games in all genres, fusing a contemporary sound with timeless emotion. His other recent projects include original scores for the Lifetime biopic Clarke Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, the Toni Braxton-led drama, Faith Under Fire, the Sundance selection Leimert Park produced by Charles King (Mudbound), and additional music for the Epix series Godfather of Harlem starring Forest Whitaker. JB’s scores have echoed at Cannes, the Warsaw Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, and the American Black Film Festival, as well as at home on Netflix, CNN, HBO, BET, Lifetime, NBC, Showtime, Netflix, PBS and Disney XD.

Brooklyn born, JB learned the piano and soaked up his gospel and jazz surroundings. He studied music at Yale and later found himself at the heart of the tech industry as a software developer and entrepreneur after selling his startup to HP. He thrived there for several years, but eventually decided to pursue his deeper passion and jumped head-first into the film scoring program at USC and the Sundance Film Music Lab. He apprenticed as a programmer for numerous A-list Hollywood composers before breaking out on his own.

“Film music has to tell a story without words,” JB says. “Its job is to add depth and dimension to the images and words presented on screen. That’s what attracted me to the medium; the opportunity to really express emotion with music alone.”

RON WASSERMAN
Ron Wasserman is a 90s theme song icon with his work reverberating throughout the decades. Ron worked at Saban Entertainment to engineer “for the day” and ended up staying for 6 1/2 years where he created the iconic theme songs of arguably the three most influential kids’ programs in the 90s with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, X-Men The Animated Series and Dragon Ball Z with all three still being referenced and watched today. He also wrote and sang 26 songs for Power Rangers, while also writing for Saban’s other shows, Sweet Valley High, VR Troopers, X-Men: The Animated Series, Dragon Ball Z and several others.

Wasserman’s music is more current than ever with his X-Men theme appearing in two different Marvel Studios projects (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness & Ms. Marvel) cementing his work as the audio DNA of the top-selling property from Marvel Entertainment. Plus, he has come back to create the music for the 30th Power Rangers anniversary film coming to Netflix titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always.

Wasserman left Saban in late 1995 to focus his efforts on his band “Fisher”, and to collaborate on 2 solo records with Jon Anderson of YES fame. The band have released 4 CDs and have had a very successful career licensing tracks for commercials, films, and television. Outside of “Fisher”, Ron has also been the primary composer for DIC Entertainment, and continues to compose for Disney, Hum, Emoto, Rock Band Network, Cookie Jar, Spike, SpongeBob, SuperNanny, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, America’s Next Top Model, and many others. Today he continues to write and sing music for much beloved television series as well as films and video games with a career now totaling over 2,900 episodes of television ranging from preschool to adult series, animation to live action, classical to contemporary.

Studio Soundtracks is made possible in part by the generous support of Spitfire Audio, makers of inspiring sounds and scoring tools for film, in collaboration with the world’s best composers, musicians and engineers. More details available at spitfireaudio.com

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