Joel Pickard is a composer creating music and sound for film, episodic series, and sonic branding. His work has premiered at Sundance, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and RiverRun, among others, and includes scoring three seasons of Art21 for PBS. He has developed sonic identities for Sundance, BritBox, and HBO, created title sequence and marketing music for The New York Times Presents, and created music for live projects with The New York Times and the Smithsonian Institution.

He is drawn to projects where sound is integral to storytelling, shaping emotional arc in film or building a distinct sonic language for a brand.

As a multi-instrumentalist with formal training in classical guitar and cello, he favors recording with real instruments, focusing on natural performance, texture, and nuance. As a curious sonic explorer, he also creates sound with analog synthesizers and modern digital production techniques.

Joel has an M.A. in Composition from Mills College in Oakland, CA, where he studied with Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, and Pauline Oliveros, and served as a teaching assistant to Pauline Oliveros (Deep Listening). He earned a B.A. in Music from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, where he studied classical guitar. In 2009, he began studying and playing the cello.

Based in Portland, Oregon

contact: joel@joelpickardmusic.com

971.255.1503

interview with Elektron  

interview with Art21

Clients and Collaborators

• Adidas

• Afternoon Inc.

• Art21 (PBS)

• Audi

• BritBox

• Core77

• Douglas Filiak

• FX

• HBO

• IFC

• Instrument

• Kodak

• Landor

• Mercedes

• The New York Times

• Nike

• Passenger Productions

• RCA

• Showtime Networks

• Sibling Rivalry

• Smithsonian Institution

• Smithsonian Networks

• Sundance Film Festival

• Thornberg and Forester

• Trollback

• Ultrabland

• US Open Tennis

• Virgin Orbit

• Work-Order