Wow! I’ve got exciting news for you: the Scottish Chamber Orchestra has today announced the judges for their Lost Book soundtrack competition. They are… drumroll…

Mick Cooke of Belle and Sebastian and our very own Alexis Bennett.

Mick has been a member of Belle and Sebastian (one of my favourite bands) since 1998. The band won a Brit in 1999 and has been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and an Ivor Novello Award. Their music has featured on film soundtracks including the Oscar-winning Juno, and they composed the soundtrack for Todd Solondz’s Storytelling.

As a composer, Mick writes music for film and TV – particularly animation. In 2008 he completed the music for The Happy Duckling which is currently winning awards around the world (the photo shows Mick collecting the prize for Best Children’s Film at Stuttgart International Animation Film Festival last month). The Happy Duckling is screening at the Edinburgh film festival this Sunday as part of the Maclaren Animation 2 programme of short films.

Mick says:

“It’s an honour to be judging this exciting competition. Scoring for animation, particularly when it is so well made, is such a rewarding job. There are so many talented composers out there, discovered and undiscovered. I’m looking forward to hearing some great scores.”

Alexis you already know. He’s the multi-talented composer who wrote the music for episode 1 of The Lost Book; he’ll be returning in episode 6. Recently he’s been involved with an opera in IKEA, performances with his group The Early Music Experiment, a new composition as part of a Bartok event, and much more.

The soundtrack competition invites composers of any age, all around the world, to write new music for episode 1 of The Lost Book. The deadline is fast approaching. We’ve had the first entries already – you need to get yours in before next Friday, 26 June 2009.

Take a look at the soundtrack competition pages for all the details.