Joel Pickard
Joel Pickard is a composer and performer based in in Portland, Oregon. He holds an MFA from Mills College where he studied under composers Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, and Pauline Oliveros and a BA from Bethel University where he studied classical guitar with David Crittenden. From 2009 to 2012, under the instruction of Anna Fritz, he studied cello. As a composer, Joel writes for film, dance, and multi-media. His films have played in festivals all over the world from Sundance and SF International Film Festival to Cinedans in Amsterdam and Cannes short film corner in France.
In addition to film work, Joel also creates music and sound design for HBO, Showtime, PBS, Smithsonian Channel, the Independent Film Channel, and commercial clients such as Kodak, Audi, Mercedes and Nike. He has toured with The Thank-you Bar, a dance performance piece for which he co-wrote the score (2012 Bessie for Best Production). His multi speaker audio installation for The New York Times showcased their 2015 Op-Doc short film series. His last recording, Motel Chronicles, is a sparse cinematic country noir soundtrack featuring pedal steel guitar. Joel has just completed scoring the eighth season of the PBS arts show ART21: Art In The Twenty-First Century.