GIORGIO MORODER - DONNA SUMMER TRIBUTE

Giorgio Moroder: He is known throughout the world as a composer, songwriter, producer and innovative film-maker, and is also a visual artist who specializes in computer-enhanced images.
Interest in computerized art dates back several years to Moroder's work on a film entidled "A Special Tree", which involved the use of hundreds of photos that he digitally modified with the help of his computer, costruing them into a psychological mystery story. While using his computer to generate creative images, Giorgio also began to feel that the existing programs for working with photographs didn`t go far enough, and he therefore sought the assistance of computer wizard Taz Goldstein. On completing the film, he discovered his experiments left him even more intrigued than before by the creative possibilities of computer-generated images, and decided that he had to learn more about the medium. He remarks, " I began to think of the computer screen as my canvas."
His works begin with a photo portrait, in either black and white or color, which he essentially repaints by way of computer manipulations, exploring and refining the emotional tone of the image itself and also of the way he responds to its subject. Each work is unique, and captures a unique experience, with its own particolar colors and its own special power. Moroder's first portraits were of various friends, such as Donna Summer, and of his wife, Francisca. In 1996, a show in England (London) focused on his images of the writer and poet Charles Bukowsky.

Giorgio Moroder was born into a family of artists in Ortisei, Val Gardena (Gardena Valley), in the Dolomite region of the italian Alps. One of his brothers is a painter and two others are sculptors. Moroder`s first experiments in the visual arts date back to the early 1980s when he was living in New York City`s Greenwitch Village. " I began to make pieces using neon lights. But they began to get so big that i didn`t have enough space in which to realize them. So i couldn`t fully explore my creative ideas. Now, with the computer, i can create images as large or as small as my mind can make them".
Though Moroder has been famous for his music for a quarter of a century, he has always been active in other creative fields as well. Several years ago, in collaboration with Claudio Zampolli, the italian car designer, Moroder created the Cizeta-Moroder automobile, an exotic sixteen-cylinder, two seater sports car. Moroder`s work on that automobile also led to an award from the City of Philadelphia for outstanding logo design.
Giorgio Moroder`s renown as a musician dates back to 1974, when he and his partner Pete Bellotte wrote and produced " Love to love you baby" sung by Donna Summer. The song rose quickly to the top of the charts and created a trend of Disco Music. In 1979, he won his first Academy Award for his score for the film " Midnight Express". Two more Oscars were to follow: for Irene Cara`s hit single " Flashdance... What a Feeling," (from the movie Flashdance), and for " Take My Breath Away" a multi-platinium recording by the group Berlin for the film Top Gun. Numerous other awards for his music include four Golden Globes, three Grammys, two People`s Choise Awards, and more than hundred golden and platinium disks.
Other hit films to which Moroder has contributed his music are The Neverending Story - Scarface - Superman III - American Gigolo - Cat People - Rambo III, and Beverly Hills Cop II.
Giorgio also restored Fritz Lang`s classic silent film, Metropolis and furnished it with a score that includes the songs performed by Bonny Tyler ( Here She Comes) and Freddy Mercury (Love Kills). Further work in film and video include his production of a documentary for German television, " The world in Which We Live", and videos that bear the titles Metamorphosis and traffic.

Moroder worked with artists such as Limahl , Donna Summer, Philip Oakey, David Bowie, Freddy Mercury, Bonny Tyler, Cher and many many others. Pioneer of discomusic, Giorgio wrote songs for many movies: Flashdance, Metropolis, Top Gun, American Gigolo, Midnight Express (The Chase), The Neverending Story, Over The Top, Scarface, Electric Dreams (The Duel)...
Giorgio Moroder is currently working on two musicals, the first is based on Flashdance, and the second is called Hexy!, the story of a witch who is a hundred and twenty-six years old.
Moroder has worked with many of the most famous names in both film and music, including Barbra Steisand, Olivia Newton-John, Cher, Pat Benatar, Roger Daltry, and Janet Jackson. His hits include Blondie`s " Call Me", Donna Summer`s "On the Radio" and "I Feel Love", Kenny Loggins` " Danger Zone", and David Bowie`s " Putting Out Fire" and " Don`t Go Breaking My Heart" with Elton John.
He remarks, refering to his work with computer-generated images, "To combine art with science is a wonderful dream come true for me. The creative possibilities are endless. There`s no limit to the things you can do with the computer. And, unlike music, i can immediately see my creations in finished form. This is a very exiting way in which to work".