Bio

Hi, I’m Brad. I don’t like writing about myself in the third person, so I’m gonna just tell you about some of the stuff I’ve done so far.

I was born in Flint, Michigan. I was very young at the time. I attended the Interlochen Arts Academy for three years as a French horn major, and after that I went to the Eastman School of music for a while. At the end of my first year the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra announced auditions for two openings, and I thought, “What the hell... it’s right across the hall” so I took the audition and, to my amazement, won the job as Second Horn. After three years there I was hired by Karel Ancerl and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I left the TSO after three seasons but remained in Toronto to free-lance. During that time I was frequently asked to play with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa(with whom I performed the Hindemith Horn Concerto), and I played regularly with the National Ballet of Canada. I also had the pleasure of joining up with Rob McConnell’s famed jazz band, The Boss Brass, with whom I made several recordings. I was also Principal Horn of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra for three seasons.

In 1980 I answered the siren call of Southern California and moved to LA. I thought it would be cool to play on movies and TV, and to record with big-name artists. I got to do that – Michael Jackson, Willie Nelson, Metallica, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Barbra Streisand, Lennie Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Celine Dion, John Legend, Paul McCartney – these were some of them. I have also played on over 1,000 film scores, and countless TV shows and commercials. In the jazz world, I have recorded with Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Stan Getz, Diane Shuur, Quincy Jones, Sammy Nestico, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett, and Shirley Horn, to name a few. One of my career highlights was touring Japan with Jaco Pastorius in support of the “Word of Mouth” album, which I also played on. I have performed regularly with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 1982, and have played hundreds of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Oh wait, you probably wanted to hear about Brad Warnaar, composer. I have written music for the concert stage, as well as for movies, TV, and commercials. I have done a good deal of “ghost-writing” for other composers. I could tell you their names, but then I’d have to kill you. Some secrets are best left untold. I have orchestrated music for well over 100 movies, and this I can talk about. My first orchestrating job was marching band music for the movie “The Right Stuff”, for whose score Bill Conti received an Academy Award. Since then I have orchestrated for many composers, including Arthur B. Rubinstein, Craig Safan, David Newman, Michael Kamen, Aaron Zigman, and Brian Tyler, for such films as “Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves”, “The Three Musketeers”, “The Notebook”, “Sex and the City”, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”(woo-hoo!) and several of the “Fast and Furious” movies, including the recent “Furious 7”.

My wife Hélène and I have two great kids. Clara, 24, is a busy free-lance percussionist based in Brooklyn, NY. Ary, 26, also a Brooklynite, is a composer and member of the popular 8-bit band, Anamanaguchi. I like other stuff besides music. I’m a licensed pilot with a seaplane rating, and I love to read, paint, and photograph birds. So there!