A special holiday event featuring fun stories from the scoring stage and valuable tips for arrangers, orchestrators, and composers.

Featuring Hollywood all-star session musicians who scored the famous soundtracks of our lives. Includes representatives from the various sections of the orchestra and recording crew.

• Kathleen Robertson — Strings
• Rick Baptist — Brass
• Gayle Levant — Harp
• Ross deRoche — Music Prep, Contractor
• Timothy Williams — Composer, Orchestrator, Conductor
• Joel Iwataki — Sound Engineer, Mixer, Composer
• Wade Culbreath — Percussion

Plus a dedication to session legends from the past such as Mike Lang, Chuck Domanico, Frank Marocco, Vince DeRosa, Uan Rasey, Tommy Morgan, Dorothy Remsen, …

Pets welcome, BYO cocoa and cookies. Share your story as time permits.

Thursday, 18 Dec 2025
12pm PST (UTC-08)
Check the time in your local time zone.

Bios

Ross deRoche (host)

Multifaceted and multitalented studio musician, Ross deRoche lists an impressive 35 years worth of credits, reading more like a list of “been there and done that” than a resume. Besides his considerable chops as a bass trombonist doubling on tuba, Ross can attribute his expertise as a music copyist/supervisor and contractor/score supervisor to virtually hundreds of motion pictures, television shows, and video games.

Kathleen Robertson (strings)

Kathleen Robertson is a Los Angeles based violinist. Although trained classically from a young age, she is known for her versatility of style and is at home in a number of musical genres including Rock, Bluegrass, Celtic and Tango. Her credits include hundreds of recordings in the Los Angeles studios where she plays both Concertmaster and section positions. Kathleen played on movie soundtracks such as Elemental, The Greatest Showman, Hocus Pocus 2, A Man Called Otto, and Bridge of Spies. She was the Concertmaster for the Pantages Theater in Hollywood for 20 years for shows such as Wicked, Hamilton, and Lion King and has recorded/performed with Sting, Dave Matthews, Mary J. Blige, Annie Lennox, Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach, Ray Charles, and many others.

Rick Baptist (brass)

40 years in the studios, Rick Baptist played on 1,300 motion pictures, 3,000 cartoons, and 30 years as first trumpet on the Academy Awards.

Timothy Williams (composer, orchestrator, conductor)

Timothy Williams' films include A24's Pearl, Netflix' Mary, Sam Raimi's Locked, Lionsgate's Finding You and Bagman, Sony's Brightburn, and Wild Horses, directed by and starring Robert Duvall.

Williams has written additional music for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Winner Get Out!, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Fast and Furious presents Hobbs and Shaw, Deadpool 2, 300, Watchmen, Super, Sucker Punch, and The Spy Who Dumped Me.

Television work includes Netflix’s Agent Elvis, AMC/Shudder’s Creepshow, Disney Jr.’s Piney, Fox’s Richard Lovely, and additional music on Tracker, Fox's The Exorcist (S2), ABC's Missing and Comedy Network's Sym Bionic Titan. 

A graduate of the National Film and Television School, Williams has received two Motion Picture SE Golden Reel Award nominations, four Thea Award wins, 10 ASCAP Plus Awards and won best score at the 24FPS Festival, best score at ScreamfestLA (2019), best score at the Raleigh Film Festival (2023), best soundtrack nomination at the HMMA Awards, best UK Film Critics horror soundtrack (2023), and nominated for best International Film Critics horror soundtrack (2023). Tim has multiple soundtracks released on Milan Records, Lakeshore Records, Sony, Varese Sarabande, and MovieScoreMedia.

Gayle Levant (harp)

Gayle Levant’s career in the studios began in 1965–66 and has become known as the harpist who would improvise after the main music had been recorded by adding her own personal touch to every project. She has worked with Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, The Carpenters, Joanie Mitchell, The Wrecking Crew, Barry Manilow, Céline Dion, Josh Groban, Queen Latifah, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera, Michael Bublé, Lady Gaga, and the list goes on and on.

In 1969, she began a wonderful, musical relationship with Barbra Streisand and continues to be a part of every recording project with Barbra in Los Angeles, whether it be for film or records.

In the 70’s and 80’s, Gayle worked on numerous television shows which included Happy Days, Love American Style, Laverne and Shirley, Fantasy Island, Dallas, Falcon Crest, Hotel, Knot’s Landing, The Scarecrow and Mrs. King, etc. For the six years that the T.V. series “Lost” was on the air, she produced a unique, eerie sound that composer Michael Giacchino used every week. She was the harpist for “The Simpsons” from the beginning of its long run for 27 years for composer Alf Clausen when the show was using a full orchestra.

In 1979, Gayle, along with partners Charles Fox and Artie Butler, built the world-class studio Evergreen Recording Studios in Burbank, CA.

She has been playing for the Academy Awards for the past thirty years, and loves being part of such a long standing tradition.

Gayle is very proud to be the first woman President of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers, aka ASMAC, a position she has held since 2018.