“I’m really proud of being part of this wonderful, wonderful musical. Many musicals, when people come out of there, it’s fun, but nothing really remains inside of them. This musical will leave a profound message in everybody that has the opportunity to see it, a message of spirituality, love and humanity altogether. This is really a nice, deep message and will ensure it is going to remain in the hearts.”

—Jorge Calandrelli,
6-time Grammy-winning &
2-time Oscar-nominated composer

Just hearing him talk, one can feel his passion for music. His eyes are lit up, his hands are in constant motion conveying his excitement, and of course, he has an ever-present smile. The man in question is renowned composer Jorge Calandrelli.

In an interview with Supreme Master Television, Mr. Calandrelli explained how the seeds were first planted that eventually produced a fruitful music career. “I started playing the piano when I was four years old. And my mother played piano beautifully, classical mainly. Oh my God, I loved that music! And I think at that very moment, without even having any idea what career a musician was, I decided to be a musician.” He added, “It’s like I was given a gift. I thank God every day for that.”

With six Grammy wins and 26 nominations, plus two Oscar nominations, Mr. Calandrelli is highly sought-after in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. A musician of extraordinary versatility, he has been honored for his work in the pop, jazz, Latin, and classical fields.

He has arranged, composed, and produced for recording artists including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Sting, Julio Iglesias, Marc Anthony, Madonna, Elton John, Plácido Domingo, Gloria Estefan, Johnny Mathis, Paul McCartney, Barry Manilow, K. D. Lang, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Bono, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Ricky Martin, and Bette Midler. He said, “I’m lucky to work with possibly the best artists in the world. And I happened to produce an album called Amore Infinito that also had the lyrics written by the Pope John Paul II, which kind of ties up why I’m here right now. Because when you write music for lyrics, it has to do with music. Every poem that has its beautiful contents inspires you to write. And every project that you do, there is a style and a concept. So what I have to do even before I start writing one note of music is to get immersed in the project, in the artist and craft, everything around it. So with a lot of years of practice, that becomes like instant. However, it’s not easy. Sometimes my students have asked me, ‘Master, how do you do that?’ It’s very simple. You do it for 30 years and then you see how easy it becomes.” (laughing)

Mr. Calandrelli has collaborated for 25 years with legendary singer Tony Bennett, including recording nine albums and winning two Grammys for his arrangements. He fondly recounts, “Tony has been a very important highlight in my life because we just celebrated 25 years of working with him. Amazingly, before I came to this country, when I was in Argentina, I remember I used to listen to Tony Bennett but like on another planet or something, you know, ‘Oh my gosh, Tony Bennett. How wonderful would it be to even meet him!’ And in the United States, as soon as I arrived, one of my first projects was The Art of Excellence album in 1986. And from that moment on, we really established a wonderful relationship.”

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma

Mr. Calandrelli won two Latin Grammy Awards for the Arturo Sandoval CD, A Time for Love, and two Grammys for his works with Yo-Yo Ma. He describes working with the gifted cellist as “very challenging because he’s one of the best players in the world.” But fortunately due to his breadth of knowledge of musical styles, he explained, “I had to write music for him to play that was at the level of his standard, and Tango came out fantastic, and he was very, very happy with it.”

The esteemed composer’s highly lauded concert works such as “Concerto for Jazz Clarinet and Orchestra” have been performed worldwide. For film and television, some of Mr. Calandrelli’s most well-known works are Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Oscar nomination for his song “A Love Before Time”), The Great Mouse Detective, and The Color Purple (Oscar nomination for Best Original Score). He shared his memories: “For Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I was called by Peter Guber, president of CBS and Sony, he called me, says, ‘Look, Jorge, I need a great song for that movie,’ because they had composed the song to Titanic that sold 35 million copies or something like that. So they wanted a song like at the end of the movie, and at that point, someone thought I could be the right person to do it. And The Color Purple, that was my other Oscar nomination. Quincy Jones called me to compose some of the clips of the film. It got nominated and there I was again at the Academy Awards with Quincy and Steven Spielberg and some of the other composers that worked on the film.”

Mr. Calandrelli lent his musical talents for the grand musical, Loving the Silent Tears. Prior to beginning composing, he had seen last year’s DVD of The Real Love musical and expressed, “I was very impressed by the quality of the production and the quality of the contents in terms of the message.”

In speaking of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s poetry that was being adapted to songs for the musical, Mr. Calandrelli said, “Beautiful! Very inspiring! That’s why when I wrote the music, mainly I responded to what the lyrics were. And the lyrics are all about enlightenment, love, all positive things and that kind of message is so beautiful. Nowadays, it’s what we all need. We all need spiritual, profound, deep thoughts and emotions. So that’s what I really tried to portray in the music.”

For Loving the Silent Tears, Mr. Calandrelli composed “Your Eyes, Your Ears, Your Heart,” a song representing Brazil through the samba style and sung by native-born star, Fabiana Passoni. The lyrics are pleading to God to come to the aid of human beings, and to put an end to the painful feeling of separation from the Divine.

“Your Eyes, Your Ears, Your Heart” (Brazil)

Eternal Game is the stirring song Mr. Calandrelli composed for the opening number in the second act. It spoke of the frustration humans feel in the seemingly endless search for a connection to the Divine.

“Eternal Game” (Company)

All the morning I sat alone Yearning to meet Thee, Thou didn’t show up.

“I chose kind of a 6 to 8 rhythmic pattern that also has a lot of Latin American roots, but it was world music,” Mr. Calandrelli offered some insight into the “Eternal Game” composition. “I had a cast of different people from different countries, so I wanted to have them be comfortable with that environment.”

Jorge Calandrelli takes final bows with fellow Loving the Silent Tears creative team members and cast.

At the event, upon seeing organizations receive generous contributions from Supreme Master Ching Hai, Mr. Calandrelli said, “I really respect what she’s doing. It’s wonderful and it’s a super positive kind of thing that the whole world needs.”

At the VIP vegan banquet, Mr. Calandrelli enthusiastically expressed, “The show was spectacular! I never expected it to be so amazing, in every sense. The costumes, the choreography, the poems! I am very happy with everything. It’s amazing! We’ll do it again next year!”

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