David Carbonara

David Carbonarais an American film and TV composer. He is best known for his work on the critically acclaimed TV seriesMad Men. His other television shows includeVegas,The Romanoffs, the mini seriesThe Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, as well as producing original songs for the period dramaThe Last Tycoon. His film work includesDavid O. Russell'sSpanking the Monkey,Amos Kollek'sFast Food Fast Womenand the award-winningAmélia, by Brazilian directorAna Carolina.
He has collaborated with several composers, includingRachel Portman,Michel LeGrandandHoward Shore.
Born to a musical family inBridgewater, Massachusetts, Carbonara began playing the trombone at age 9.
In the eighth grade, he was invited to join a rehearsal big band atBridgewater State Collegecomposed of students and faculty members fromBerklee College of Music,New England Conservatoryand other professional area musicians. The band included drummerSteve Smith, now famous for his work in the bandJourney.
In the 1970s Carbonara started playing night clubs with his brothers, John Carbonara, now a music editor, and Stephen Carbonara, who founded theAmerican School of Modern Musicin Paris, France.
After several years playing in bands, Carbonara returned to Berklee College of Music in 1983. Unsure which direction to head, Carbonara chose to pursue a film scoring major, not because he wanted to score movies or even loved film music, but because it was a major that allowed him to take classes in a variety of disciplines.
In 2001,Matthew Weinersent Carbonara the pilot script toMad Men, but it was not until 2006 that the pilot was shot, and season 1 aired starting in July 2007. Along with scoring all 7 seasons ofMad Men, Carbonara was asked to produce songs that appeared as performances in the show, the first being "Babylon" from the same titled episode in season 1.
Other productions were "The Best Thing in Life Are Free" by Robert Morse,Jessica Pare's "Zou Bisou Bisou"along with the released instrumentals such as "Song of India" and "Moonglow".
On the stage he created a cabaret/variety show called "TheMad MenLive Revue", which featured cast members performing songs from the era, and was staged at Los Angeles'sEl Rey Theatrefor one night only, Oct, 21, 2008.It had a reprise, in a much larger venue in Las Vegas, as "A Night on the Town with Mad Men" at The Hollywood Theater inThe MGM Grand Hotelon Jan. 27th, 2009.Two years later, on Nov. 18, 2011 Carbonara conducted a suite of hisMad Menmusic atCarnegie HallwithThe New York Popsin an evening called "Cocktail Hour: Music of the 'Mad Men' Era" featuring singerCheyenne Jackson, and under the musical direction of Pop's conductorSteven Reineke.
In 2012, Carbonara began work on the pilot to CBS'sVegas, which was directed byJames Mangoldwho had worked with Carbonara previously as the music editor on his film,Cop Land. Carbonara scored all 21 episodes for the 2012–2013 season, while working on the sixth season ofMad Men, and beginning work on Matthew Weiner's independent film,Are You Here. AfterMad Menhe continued in the period genre of composing with Lifetime'sThe Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, and went on to produce 1930s songs for Amazon's period dramaThe Last Tycoon. And in 2018, once again for Amazon scored two episodes of Matthew Weiner's anthology seriesThe Romanoffs.