Photo: Gregory conducting The Simpsons Orchestra at the FOX Studios Newman Scoring Stage
Gregory Prechel writes everything from Greek music to big band to classical to horror... and that’s just on The Simpsons. As a composer and lead orchestrator and conductor on the hit Fox series (the longest-running American sitcom or animated series in television history), Prechel gets to flex nearly every musical muscle with a live orchestra on a weekly basis. “It’s so fun, because it’s all over the map,” he says. “You never know what you’re going to do.”
He applies that same grab-bag of tricks to the Netflix/PBS children’s series, Mack & Moxy (which features Simpsons star Hank Azaria). Prechel writes a carbonated kaleidoscope of fantasy and adventure music for the show, which partners with different non-profits and charities to teach kids about organizations that help the community. His diverse credits also include music, orchestration, and arrangements for popular Disney movies—including the Air Bud / Air Buddies franchise and Lion King 1.5—the Scary Movie series, and TV projects ranging from Futurama and King of the Hill to American Idol and the NBA All-Star Game.
He honed his skills writing parade and attraction music for Disneyland while still a student at Cal State Long Beach. He has arranged orchestral music for pop artists like Christina Aguilera and LeAnn Rimes, and for symphony orchestras including the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, Houston Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic. He has also received commissions to write full-length concert works for the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra and the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra.
Prechel got the musical itch growing up in Newport Beach, California, when he started playing the trumpet and imitating the Herb Alpert and Burt Bacharach records playing on a loop at home. He began taking lessons at age nine, and performed (and did arrangements for) a Tijuana Brass-like ensemble in grade school. Film music entered his imagination early on, and he even took lessons from legendary trumpetist Harold “Pappy” Mitchell, who played on the scores for Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. In college he studied privately with Albert Harris, an old hand on Hollywood’s scoring stages, and Simpsons composer Alf Clausen.
“I think when you get it right, it just brings so much life to the picture,” Prechel says of film and TV scoring. “It just brings a whole other dimension. Every little turn of tone and emotion... I really enjoy the puzzle of making all of that work out, to where it’s just aesthetically perfect.”