Donald Rubinstein - Film Scoring For George A. Romero

Film Scoring For George A. Romero

Donald Rubinstein was 26 when he was first introduced to famed horror filmmaker George A. Romero through his brother Richard P. Rubinstein, who had produced Martin for the writer-director. It was an innovative psychological horror film that equated vampirism with drug addiction and urban decay, and was set in Romero's favored location of Pittsburgh. To match Martin's unique tone, Rubinstein created a Baroque jazz score to play a lonely young man who believes himself to be undead. This was the first time modernistic music had been heard in a "vampire" movie, and Rubinstein's Martin soundtrack would become a highly sought collector's item that Mojo magazine called "One of the top 100 Coolest Soundtracks of All Time."

When Romero next turned Camelot into a motorcycle Renaissance Faire for Knightriders, Donald Rubinstein would compose an equally innovative score, as well as appear in the film as the leader of a musical trio. Rubinstein became close friends with Ed Harris on Knightriders, and would later write an unused score for the actor's directorial debut on Pollock. In 2000, Rubinstein composed the score for Romero's allegorical horror film Bruiser, about a put-upon man who literally becomes faceless.

Donald Rubinstein's other soundtrack work included co-writing, with Erica Lindsay, the main title of the television series Tales From the Darkside (as well as its theatrical version). He also wrote the main title and episodic music for the television series Monsters. He scored the documentary feature, Tangled Up In Bob: Searching For Bob Dylan, and most recently (2012) "Absolutely Nothing, Next 22 Miles" for Emmy Award winning director Miguel Grunstein.