Grammy and Emmy-winning composer Carlos Rafael Rivera, Chair of the Media Scoring and Production Department at the Frost School of Music, has added to his long list of prestigious accolades by winning The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) for outstanding original title sequence for a television production. The prize was for Rivera’s Main Title theme for the Apple TV+ series “Lessons in Chemistry” (for which he was also nominated for best score), the latest in a long and growing list of critically acclaimed hit shows for which Rivera has created music.
The award, given at the 5th SCL Awards last month, was presented to Rivera by none other than Monica Mancini, the daughter of iconic film and television composer Henry Mancini and frequent collaborator with the Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute.
Held at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, the SCL Awards honor original scores and songs in visual media. Many of the nominees attended, including Billie Eilish and Finneas, who won for outstanding original song for a comedy or musical for “What Was I Made For” from the megahit “Barbie.” Their presence indicated the growing importance of the SCL awards in Hollywood.
Rivera’s score for Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit,” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, one of the network’s most-watched and critically acclaimed series, earned him a Primetime Emmy Award and his first Grammy Award. He garnered another Emmy for his score for the Netflix series “Godless.” An associate professor at the Frost School, Rivera has composed scores for the Peabody and Emmy-winning series “Hacks” for HBO Max and for the international hit “La Reina Del Sur” for Netflix/Telemundo. More recently, he composed the score for the Netflix series “Griselda,” starring Sofia Vergara, which tells the story of notorious drug queenpin Griselda Blanco and her Miami reign.
