COMPOSER
Germaine’s body of work includes scoring feature films, documentaries, television, video games, and interactive media.
GERMAINE FRANCO is a Grammy winning and Oscar-nominated composer, music producer, and percussionist, who combines her passion for music with her technical and orchestral expertise for film, television, concerts, and interactive media formats. Her extensive resume and inventiveness, has made her a trailblazer in the industry.
Her latest interactive, immersive project was a live-action event collaboration with acclaimed director Carlos Lopez Estrada and his Antigravity Academy production team, in conjunction with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Silent House Productions, and Nexus Studios. The event, For Mexico, For All Time UFC 306 premiered at The Sphere, Las Vegas, featuring state of the art immersive visual and sonic experiences.
Franco is well known for her score to Encanto. She is the first woman to score a Disney animated feature. The soundtrack album for the film reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart in 2022 for several weeks. Beyond her work in animation Germaine has also scored the immensely popular action thriller The Mother directed by Niki Caro, starring Jennifer Lopez. The film is one of Netflix’s highest performing feature film releases to date with a reported 250 million hours viewed, reaching more than 250 million people worldwide.
Her television work includes the hit shows Vida and The Casagrandes. Germaine has also contributed scores to hit comedy feature films Little, directed by Tina Gordon, Tag, directed by Jeff Tomsic, and the Sundance Festival darling Dope, directed by Rick Famuyiwa. While also contributing scores to massive interactive theme park installations at Universals Studios Hollywood DreamWorks Theatre Featuring Kung Fu Panda ride attraction, and Universals Beijing Resorts Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness.
Franco has performed as a percussionist with several major international orchestras and artists, including the Belgian Radio Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Hollywood Symphony, the World Orchestra, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Jack Black, Sergio Mendes, Sheila E. and Judith Hill. Franco performs percussion on all of her scores.
Germaine’s work has been performed in concert halls around the world, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall with The Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony, The Puerto Rico Symphony, The National Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Houston Symphony, The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, The Taipei Symphony Orchestra. The Encanto and Coco Live concerts have reached millions of audiences in concerts around the world.
Additional award wins include two Annie Awards, a Variety Artisan Award, a Society of Composers and Lyricists Award, and the ASCAP Shirley Walker Award.Franco holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and an honorary doctorate in music from The San Francisco Conservatory Of Music.
Recording strings for Encanto at the Fox Scoring Stage
From right to left Greg Hayes, Germaine Franco, Dave Giuli
Tag at Sony Scoring Stage
Front row L to R: John Ashton Thomas, Germaine Franco, Jeff Tomsic, David Baucher Back row L to R: Sarah Romilly, Alvin Wee, Louis Schultz
“Kung Fu Panda: The Emperor’s Quest” at Abbey Road
Germaine Franco
Warner Brothers Scoring Stage
Germaine producing COCO Orchestral song session at Warner Brothers Scoring stage, background, Andrew Page and Steve Davis
Academy’s Careers in Film Summit Music in Film
Evoking Emotion Panelists, from L to R, Mike Music, Trent Reznor, Germaine Franco, Morgan Rhodes, Justin Hurwitz, Taura Stinson, Jordan Corngold
PERCUSSIONIST
Germaine performs classical, hand, and latin percussion with a variety of artists and ensembles.
GF (far right) performs with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Judith Hill, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Lorne Balfe, Satnam Ramgotra, and Rupert Gregson-Williams as part of the “Composer’s Band” for the 20th Anniversary of DreamWorks Animation Concert at the Hollywood Bowl.
Franco has performed as a percussionist with several major international orchestras and artists, including the Belgian Radio Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Hollywood Symphony, the World Orchestra, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Jack Black, Sergio Mendes, Sheila E. and Judith Hill. Franco performed percussion on her recent score to the Kung Fu Panda Unstoppable Awesomeness Attraction, featured in the 2016 Women Who Score Concert at California Plaza, and the Women Who Score film directed by Sara Nesson and produced by Naida Albright and Laura Karpman.