Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Roman Kovalik graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston with a Bachelor Degree in Film Scoring and Music Business. Roman received the "State Scholarship of Switzerland for Overseas Studies in Contemporary Composition" and was honoured by the "Berklee Achievement Scholarship". He was constantly on the "Dean’s List" - an award for excellent academic achievements and earned a "Certificate of Excellence in Composition" issued by Berklee College of Music in 2005.
Since Summer 2006, Roman Kovalik lives in Los Angeles and works on various projects as film composer, music producer, arranger, and orchestrator out of his home studio, using the latest music computer applications, excellent sound libraries and a variety of synthesizers/pianos, guitars, amplifiers, and percussion instruments. During his first three years, he refined his skills through mentorships with world class composers such as Mark Kilian (Tsotsi, Traitor), Christopher Young (Spiderman 3, Lucky You), Steve J. Edwards (Hellraiser, Ninja) and Shawn K. Clement (Quantum Quest, American Idol). Roman is curently composing scores for several independant movies, writing for a TV series on Discovery Channel and TrueTV on a weekly basis, working on a web series, as well as he produces music for music libraries and local bands.
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT ROMAN'S WORK Roman Kovalik’s diverse musical background - from concert pianist to multi instrumentalist for theatre, from classically trained composer to recording and touring rock guitarist – has formed a musical style, which has been described as “cutting edge” (Graham Ward, ex-drummer of Paul McCartney & Tom Jones) “powerful and continuous innovative” (Christophe Beck, film composer and Emmy Award Winner) ”rich on harmonic content and superb melodies” (Mark Kilian, film composer for Rendtion, Traitor, etc.) “a challenge to musical boundaries” (Andrew List, Doctor of Music Composition), and “musically mature” (Paul Hepker, film composer for Tsotsi, Ex Men, etc.).
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| BIOGRAPHY Roman Kovalik was born in Switzerland to Czech parents who immigrated from the Communists Regime after the Prague Spring in 1968. He discovered his passion for music early in his life following in his father's footsteps and taught himself to play the violin when he was 5 years old. Roman felt an urge to express his ideas beyond the limitations of just one melodic line and he started to take private instructions on piano. When he turned 11 years old, Roman was performing as a classical concert pianist in Switzerland. He composed his first piece "Hymn to the Past" at the age of eight, which was recorded by the band Succubus and broadcasted on national Swiss radio stations. At the age of 13, Roman picked up the electric guitar, founded the punk band Sprengkoerper as lead singer/ guitarist, wrote over 30 pieces, handled promotion and booking and toured nationally for four years. In 1996, Roman also founded the melodic orchestral rock band Succubus together with singer Philipp Gloor. With Succubus , Roman was able to express his creative ambitions in a larger musical vocabulary with classical instrumentation. Succubus toured all over Europe and played as a headline act at international Music Festivals until April 2003, at which point Roman decided to split up the band to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Besides those two bands, Roman has worked on lot of different projects such as writing the music for an annual theatre production ("Much Ado about Nothing" by Shakespeare in 1999, "Kabalen & Lieben" by T. Hugentobler in 2000, "Merlin" by T. Dorst in 2001). He composed a classical choir prelude for the Avantgarde Metal Opera "Shining Bright Mourningside" and orchestrated Remo Borggi's composition, who is the mastermind behind the legendary European metal band Messiah . In addition, Roman was arranging popular songs into rock music for the party punk rock band Zersprengte Koerper . Since he came to Berklee College of Music in 2003 (Dual Major in Film Scoring and Music Business/ Management), Roman has earned a Certificate of Excellence in Composition, received the Berklee Achievement Scholarship, won several composition competitions - such as the Esterhazy String Quartett Competition, New Piano Compositions in 2005 and the Pop/Rock Show in 2004. He was on the Dean's List several times - an award for excellent academic achievement. During his studies, Roman has continued his extra-curricular activities and has scored a movie ("Sick", directed by Matt Sulivan), has written music and has done the sound design for two video games ("Asteroids" and "Chevalier", created by Russel Lowke) and has performed as pianist for an original band (Ashley Farrel Band ) as well as with cover bands ( Faith No More, Led Zeppelin ) in and around Boston. Since Roman's relocation to Los Angeles in Summer 2006, he worked on a vast variety of projects as a composer, producer, arranger, music editor and orchestrator. He wrote scores for independant movies (Absent, Katrina Frey's, Echo Park, Hard Feelings, Bullet in the Brain), composed and produced additional music for feature films, documentaries and TV Series (Feast II: Sloppy Seconds, Without the King, Day Break) and wrote tracks for fashion shows (Valentine Good vs. Evil, Space Style 2007). He worked as a Composer Assistant for Mark Kilian (Rendition, Tsotsi (Oscar for best foreign movie 2006)), Christopher Young (Spiderman 3, Ghost Rider), and Steve Edwards (Children of the Corn, Hellraiser) and transcribed and arranged popular songs for "Sound Art" and "Join The Band". Roman also produced tracks for the full length album of the Londoner pop singer Coco (Nakedstate) and produced "The God's" album "Demonstration of God" to which he contributed with string arrangements. He also produced and engineered the first EP for the LA based rock band "Dirty Trash" as well as the band "Nothing Sacred". Roman is curently composing scores for several independant movies, writing for a TV series on Discovery Channel and TrueTV on a weekly basis, working on a web series, as well as he produces music for music libraries and local bands. |