We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Annah Tencic a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Annah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I feel lucky to have worked on many great films and projects over the past year. Among them, there is “Lokja”, a drama directed by Jean Lepeudry (Jay) which was released on February 1st 2024. This film is particularly meaningful to me for two reasons. First, the story. As soon as I read the script, the story resonated deeply with me emotionally and struck me as an important one to tell. Lokja is a beautiful film about inclusion, understanding and finding peace.
Second, the artistic connection with some of the crew. The collaboration with Jay, the director, was effortless and creatively very rewarding. I don’t think the music could have turned out the way it did without us truly putting our minds, visions and hearts together to come up with a very unique score (violin, vocals and church organ!). Jay gave me his valuable input and feedback, but he also gave me a lot of creative freedom and most importantly: his trust. I also found great pleasure and meaning in my musical collaborations with the musicians I recorded for the score. Murat Selçuk gave me a beautifully tender clarinet line. And Hannah Hanxiu Zhang exceeded my highest hopes with her magnificent Solo Violin performance.

Another film that I loved working on is “Everywhere You Go” by Anjini Taneja Azhar and Victoria Perry, which was released in July 2023. In a very artistic way, “Everywhere You Go” tells the true story of Victoria, who survived the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, and explores the topics of healing and survivor’s guilt. Not only is the story strikingly haunting, the visuals and lighting are a work of art (congrats to the great DP Gary Long), and Jamila Hache’s and Dash Kolos’ acting performance is breathtaking.
This film is also really special to me because it was the first time I teamed up to co-compose a soundtrack. I really enjoyed collaborating with Alex Winkler, who is a very talented composer. Our skillsets and visions turned out to be very complementary, and the hybrid score that emerged was quite different from anything we would have produced on our own, and yet so familiar, not a mere juxtaposition but a true meshing of both our musical identities.
The score is especially close to my heart because it includes a lot of cello, which I had much fun recording for the film at Alex’s studio. It is melodic but also textural, high and soaring at times, low and rumbling at others. The cello is my primary instrument, and it was a joy to have an opportunity to use it that extensively in the score.

There were many other great projects that I was glad to be a part of. For instance, I wrote the trailer music for Clemy Clarke’s new feature film “Hi, How Are You?” which premiered at Cinemark Howard Hughes in Los Angeles in December 2023. Clemy had a very clear vision and her input was always sound and to the point. It was a fun and interesting collaboration and my first time writing a pop music track, which opened up a whole new musical horizon to me.
I was also very happy to work with Grammy Award winning and Emmy nominated composer Christopher Lennertz on such films as Tim Story’s “Dashing Through The Snow” (Disney +) starring Lil Rel Howery and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, the Disneyland Fireworks show “Wondrous Journeys”, and the series “Gen V” and “The Boys” (Amazon Prime Video). I am very grateful for Chris and all the wonderful humans that I crossed paths with thanks to those projects.

Annah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After graduating from College in Paris (France) with a Master of Science and working for a year at a consulting firm, I decided to pivot and start doing what truly made me happy. So I moved to Los Angeles to become a music composer. I graduated from the prestigious USC Thornton Screen Scoring Master’s program, and then worked on Chris Lennertz’s music team for 2 years. I then launched my own business as a freelance composer. I compose and produce original music soundtracks for film (live action and animated), TV, video games, documentaries, trailers, and theater plays. I have worked on projects released on Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Apple TV+. I love immersing myself in the director’s world and conveying subtext and emotion through music. I find the passionate creative conversations very inspiring and enjoy putting my music in service of the story and the director’s vision.
When appropriate, I love recording my cello and voice in my scores. I am also used to working with bigger ensembles. I have conducted and recorded orchestra, choir and band in various studios such as Warner Brothers, Fox, and Ocean Way (Nashville). I really enjoy and treasure those moments when the music finally comes alive, and I love interacting and collaborating with so many talented musicians.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The joy. The meaning. The freedom. I can honestly say that I’m happy to get up every morning and get to work, because I’m passionate about what I do. Having experienced another career path before I pivoted has given me some perspective on what is important to me in order to feel professionally and emotionally fulfilled. Of course, launching one’s business as a creative also comes with its struggles. It’s not only about writing the music, it comes with so many other duties and responsibilities: the legal business paperwork and accounting, the technicals aspect of setting up a studio, stabilizing the finances, networking and communicating via Social Media etc. I’m wearing many different hats and the days are full, but they go by in the blink of an eye and if there’s one thing that I can say without a doubt, it’s that I never have time to get bored. Most importantly, I get to write music for a living and meet wonderful people along the way.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I love reading, fiction mostly. Books have always been a place for me to dream, to imagine, to immerse myself in stories and worlds different from everyday life. They are one of the ways I recharge my creativity. I think one of the dangers, when launching one’s business, is for that endeavor to become all-consuming and completely overshadow anything else. I find that often, taking a break to read, hike, bake, or meet up with my family and friends actually enables me to be more efficient and focused on my business and music.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.annahtencicmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annah.tencic/?hl=fr
• Other: ImDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9625000/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Image Credits
Jean Lepeudry Emily Merrill