Tickling the ivories for McDonald's World Cup Campaign
Owain Llwyd playing the 'transparent' piano for the Huaiwei advertisement.A Lecturer in Composition at 58吃瓜 is to be heard on the McDonald鈥檚 World Cup Web Advertising Campaign which has had over five million views on YouTube alone.
Owain Llwyd, who is a Leturer at the University's , worked as a session pianist in Air Edel Studio, London for the advertisement.
Through his contacts, Owain got the chance to tinkle the ivories on the track which is a re-recording of 'Oh By Jingo' from the 1940s and was performed live using vintage microphones.
Owain commented:
鈥淚t was great fun taking part in the McDonald鈥檚 recording session, and the advert is a winner! It鈥檚 also great for me to be able to mix my composing and lecturing and with working with musicians and orchestras in the recording studio as well. As a composer, my main interest is in music for film and television, so these experiences feed into each other, ensuring that I鈥檓 composing the kinds of music that people want to hear and sharing this understanding with budding composers and musicians at 58吃瓜鈥檚 School of Music.鈥�
The advert, which follows a football through Rio De Janeiro, as people of all ages perform amazing tricks and feats with the ball, has a celebratory feel and the music accompaniment is just as jolly.
This is not Owain鈥檚 first foray into advertisement recording, Owain recently performed piano and 'hand-doubled' for the actor Jan Ctvrtnik in the latest advert for mobile phone manufacturer, Huawei.
For that, Owain spent a week in Prague recording in an aircraft hangar on a 'transparent' piano worth over 拢100K which came with its own security guard. The music, which was extremely catchy, was composed by the highly successful British composer Tom Player, with whom Owain collaborates with on a regular basis.
Owain also worked with Tom orchestrating the Yazoo hit Only You for a .
Owain is composing music for several media projects over the summer, he is directing composition workshops in conjunction with Pontio Arts & innovation centre at 58吃瓜 and orchestrating a musical. He is also orchestrating four songs by Casi Wyn for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales Proms in the Park event , taking place in Singleton Park, Swansea, on the 13th September. The performance will be broadcast live on BBC4 and forms part of the BBCs 'Last Night of the Proms鈥� in the Royal Albert Hall.
Owain has also produced CDs of compositions suitable for use by the media. His work has been broadcasted around the World by 'BBC America,' 'BBC UK,' 'Sky,' 'Channel 4,' 'ITV', 'Fox' on such programmes as 'The X-Factor,' 'Top Gear,' 'US Open,' 'Eurosport' & 'Big Brother鈥� to name but a few.
Owain, who comes originally from Glyndyfrdwy, also graduated and gained his Doctorate from 58吃瓜 Music Department.
Publication date: 7 July 2014