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Jay Chattaway and Dennis McCarthy

Chattaway with Dennis McCarthy

Jay Chattaway scoring Terra Prime

Jay Chattaway working on scoring ENT: "Terra Prime"

Emmy-winning composer Jay Chattaway (born 8 July 1946; age 77) has written musical scores for numerous episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.

He has been nominated for an Emmy Award five times for his work on Star Trek, winning in 2001 for his score for the Star Trek: Voyager series finale, "Endgame". In addition, he won (or shared) eight ASCAP Awards for his music, all in the Top TV Series category. His name appeared on a crew manifest in the Voyager episode "Projections". Some of Chattaway's Trek scores have been released as part of the GNP Crescendo album Star Trek: The Next Generation Volume 4 and their release of the Voyager pilot episode "Caretaker", as well as the La-La Land collections for Star Trek: The Next Generation (volumes one and two), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (volumes one and two), Star Trek: Voyager (volumes one and two), and Star Trek: Enterprise (volumes one and two).

Chattaway was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania and was a member of the band "The Astronotes" while attending high school. He received a scholarship to study composition at West Virginia University of Creative Arts and later attended the Eastman School of Music, the Catholic University and the Institute of Audio Research. Chattaway recalls "It taught me how to write fast" about his time in the Navy band in Washington, D.C. during the Vietnam War. (The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 13, p. 32)

In 1976 he moved to Manhattan and became staff producer for CBS Records where he worked with artists such as Carly Simon, David Byrne and Maynard Ferguson. For Ferguson's album "Conquistador", he arranged a jazz version of Alexander Courage's Star Trek theme. Through his collaboration with Gato Barbieri on his album "Caliente", Chattaway was introduced into film scoring. He worked as orchestrator with 85 musicians, the London Philharmonic. In 1979 he and artist Bob James founded Tappan Zee Records but both branched out three years later.

Chattaway composed the music for many well-known action and horror B-movies of the 1980s, including two of the three Missing in Action films, and William Lustig's horrors, including Maniac (1980), Vigilante (1983, co-starring Fred Williamson) and Maniac Cop (1988, with Judy Levitt, Erik Holland and Lee Arnone-Briggs). He also scored the action movies Invasion U.S.A. (1985, with Jon De Vries, Richard Lynch, Stephen Markle, Nick Ramus, and Maria Doest) and Red Scorpion (1989). His work on Red Scorpion gained the attention of the producers of The Next Generation when they've searched for a composer to fill in for a TNG Season 3 episode. With the help of Paramount's head of music, David Grossman, Chattaway was called in.

Media[]

Star Trek credits[]

Star Trek awards[]

Chattaway received the following awards and nominations for his work on Star Trek:

  • 1995 Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) for the episode "Caretaker"
  • 1995 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • 1996 Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Series for the episode "Our Man Bashir"
  • 1996 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  • 1997 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  • 1998 Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Music Direction for the episode "His Way"
  • 1998 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, shared with Dennis McCarthy
  • 1999 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: Voyager
  • 2000 Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) for the episode "Spirit Folk"
  • 2000 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: Voyager
  • 2001 Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore) for the episode "Endgame"
  • 2001 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: Voyager, shared with Dennis McCarthy and David Bell
  • 2002 ASCAP Award in the category Top TV Series for Star Trek: Enterprise, shared with Dennis McCarthy, David Bell, Paul Baillargeon, and Diane Warren

Star Trek interviews[]

External links[]

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