Michael Abels, Composer Of Jordan Peele's 'Us', Balances Terror With Empathy
Abels was a music teacher who had never scored a film when he was hired for Jordan Peele's Get Out and now Us. Peele hired him after a fruitless search for an African-American film composer.
Get Out may have been Michael Abels' first film score, but he's always known what makes music scary. "I actually have a memory of hearing 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' by Edvard Grieg when I was in a crib," Abels says, laughing. "And that piece terrified me."
After arrived in February 2017 — making 40 times its budget, becoming aremembers getting a call from Steven Spielberg, who mentioned Michael Abels. "You've got to use him again," Spielberg said. "It's like me and John Williams." Peele was already planning to keep working with Abels, but that sealed it.
