The Jade Pendant 

Last February I recorded all the vocal lines of the movie “The Jade Pendant”. A movie based on true events and the book “the Jade Pendant” by L.P. Leung:

“A tragic love story set against the lynching of 18 Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles, in 1871. Fleeing an arranged marriage in China, the independent Peony signs a contract to work as a “flower girl” in America, where she meets Tom, an American Born Chinese cook whose father works on the Transcontinental Railroad. Thwarted by a Hong Kong Triad boss seeking to extend his power into America, theirs is the tale of the first great Chinese immigration to the United States – a story of romance, bigotry, passion, food and a search for everlasting love – set against the largest mass lynching in American history, in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, in 1871.”

The filmmusic is written by the lovely Anne-Kathrin Dern. (see her bio below)

During the Cannes Film Festival (2017) Crimson Forest Entertainment announced that they acquired North American rights to Chinese period romance “The Jade Pendant,” from China- and Hong Kong-based Lotus Entertainment.  The official premiere was on November the 3th in America.

Trailer

Behind the scenes, met op de achtergrond de muziek van Anne (en mijn stem).

Anne-Kathrin Dern

Anne-Kathrin Elisabeth Dern (1987) is a German film composer, currently residing in Los Angeles, California. She worked on several TV, movie, and video game titles, including Microsoft’s “HALO V: Guardians”, Riot Games’ “League of Legends”, both seasons of Alan Menken’s and ABC’s “Galavant”, FOX’s “Gracepoint”, Galaxy Studios’ “A Broken Man”, and several more. Throughout 2015, she worked on the highly anticipated Warner Bros. / Skydance blockbuster production “Geostorm” (2017), starring Gerard Butler. She also wrote and produced the jingle to a national advertising campaign by Warren Douglas for the brand “Tyson”. Anne recently finished working as an additional music writer for Klaus Badelt’s score to his movie “Ballerina” (starring Elle Fanning) which also contains orchestral arrangements to songs by Sia and Chris Braide.  Additionally, she wrote music for two “Lotte World” theme park rides in Seoul (South Korea) and Shenyang (China), again under the guidance and supervision of Klaus Badelt.

Anne studied film scoring at the private film music academy “musicube” (Germany) in 2007/2008, followed by a Bachelor’s degree in “Composition for Film & Theater” at the acclaimed ArtEZ Conservatory (Netherlands) from 2008-2012. The Film Scoring Certificate Program at UCLA concluded her academic studies in 2013, along with an internship at Remote Control Productions.

From early 2013 until late 2014, Anne has been known to work as a full-time staff composer for the LA based music production houses “Hollywood Scoring” and “Powerhouse Music Productions”, specializing in music for TV, Video Games, and Motion Picture Advertising. At the same time, she was also a member of their sister company “Cinesamples” as part of the sample development department, filling the position as demo composer, beta lead, sample editor, and Kontakt Programmer. She mainly contributed to the CineSeries and the WorldSeries product lines. Anne has extensive experience in creating custom virtual instruments for composers worldwide, one of her most recent contribution being a custom percussion library for Ninja Tracks. Additionally, she was on the beta testing team for VIR2’s “Apollo: Cinematic Guitars” (released on June 4th 2015) and VIR2’s “AERIS: Hybrid Choir Designer” (released on June 14th 2016). She composed official demos for both products and is currently part of the production and development team of VIR2’s upcoming “MOJO Horns Vol. 2”. Another one of her latest commercial music software involvements was a contribution to SonicSmiths’ first release called “The Foundry” (released on August 21st 2015) for which she also joined the beta team and wrote an official demo called “The Founders’ Destiny”.

Over time, Anne started to establish work relationships with several LA based composers such as Christopher Lennertz (Red Castle Inc. / Sonic Fuel Studios), William Ross (Momentum RLP), Klaus Badelt (Wunderhorn), Steve Jablonsky (Arata Music), Ryan Shore, Pinar Toprak, and several more. Her first collaboration with filmmaker Enrico Natale – “WTF” – premiered in December 2016 at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood. Additionally, Anne frequently works with Belgian director, editor, and screen writer Julien Kerknawi (“Stolepark”, “A Broken Man”). Their latest collaboration was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, won a prestigious Remi Award at the Houston World Film Fest and earned Anne a nomination for “Best Soundtrack” at the CinePublic Film Festival. Their next collaboration – “The Last Front” – is currently in development.