Norman Ludwin, bassist for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek (2009) and others, is born
Norman Ludwin, bassist for various Star Trek shows and movies. Image IMDb
On November 3, 1956, Dr. Norman Ludwin was born. Ludwin is a bassist, composer, orchestrator and teacher who performed as a bassist on the first seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: Into Darkness.
Ludwin, who has been slapping his double bass for film and television studios for over 30 years and over 200 motion pictures, has worked with such composers as John Williams, Danny Elfman and Jerry Goldsmith, the latter of whom composed the music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the theme to Star Trek: Voyager, among other Trek-related projects. Ludwin has worked on films such as Schindler’s List, Memoirs of a Geisha, Super-8, Jurassic World, and the Pixar films WALL-E and Inside Out.
He has written 11 books on orchestration and film composition and presented seminars at the Munich Hochschule, Zurich School of the Arts, BMI Headquarters in New York City and Beijing Normal University, among others. His compositions and arrangements have been performed by groups around the world, notably the Seattle Symphony and the New World Symphony.
Ludwin is currently an instructor in the UCLA Film Scoring Program, the Film Scoring Academy of Europe and the Musicians Local 47. He is also currently accepting private lessons in orchestration and film scoring via Zoom, so if you have aspirations to score the next Trek film, head on over to his website to check it out!
We would like to wish Norman Ludwin a happy 65th birthday!
T is the Managing Editor for Daily Star Trek News and a contributing writer for Sherlock Holmes Magazine and a Shakespeare nerd. He may have been the last professional Stage Manager to work with Leonard Nimoy, has worked Off-Broadway and regionally, and is the union Stage Manager for Legacy Theatre, where he is currently working with Julie Andrews. after which he’ll be working on Richard III at Elm Shakespeare Company.
