Sonoton Founder Receives First 'Hall Of Fame' Mark Award

Gerhard Narholz, composer and founder of Sonoton Production music, has received the first 'Hall of Fame' Mark Award.

The newly-established international award for production music was presented by the Production Music Association (PMA) at a ceremony in Los Angeles on 9 September.

Mr Narholz was honoured with the Hall of Fame award for his life's work.

"I was at the CEEMPC Congress in Istanbul when I got the news from Los Angeles. The surprise was perfect. I am very pleased about the award," says Gerhard Narholz. "I'm accepting this in place for hundreds of composers, producers, musicians and worldwide publisher colleagues."

His son, Gregor Narholz, accepted the award on behalf of his father.

Fifty years ago, Rotheide and Gerhard Narholz established Sonoton as a company in Munich. Working as a songwriter for artists such as Petula Clark, Bill Ramsey and Heidi Brühl, as well as a composer for German feature films and television series, Narholz had the idea to compose and produce specific film and television music as background music.

In order to employ other composers, he founded the SONOTON publishing house in 1965 and thus introduced and reinvented library music in Germany. Today, with more than 100,000 tracks from 16 labels, Sonoton is the largest independent production music library in the world.

Named in honor of the late Andy Mark, who was a music library owner and a founding member of the Production Music Association, the Mark Awards recognize the very best in production music in 17 categories. The non-profit organisation is a leading advocate and voice of the production music community.

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