New York, NY - Amnesty International USA won a 2010 Webby People’s Voice Award for “Words,” a PSA narrated by actress and Amnesty International USA Spokesperson Nazanin Boniadi. She and Curious Pictures director Rohitash Rao will accept the award on behalf of Amnesty International at the awards ceremony hosted by B.J. Novak on Monday, June 14th at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Amnesty International's “Words” PSA urges individuals to use the strength of their words to help those who have been wrongfully imprisoned or persecuted for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.

“Words” highlights attacks upon freedom of expression around the world. It draws on real-life examples, such as the case of Shi Tao, a poet and journalist who is serving a ten-year prison sentence in China for sending an email. It describes the dangers faced by human rights activists in Zimbabwe who are routinely harassed by authorities, and it calls attention to the thousands detained in Iran for demanding a fair election.

“Words” first appeared on YouTube’s homepage in December 2009 as part of YouTube’s “Video Volunteers Program” and was introduced by Morgan Freeman and narrated by Nazanin Boniadi. The short film was produced pro-bono by Curious Pictures and conceived and directed by Rohitash Rao. The video was produced in just six weeks with more than 15 volunteers sometimes working round the clock to build sets, models and film minute movements to create the animation. Jonathan Elias, of Elias Arts, created the score.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied. Founded in 1961, Amnesty will be recognizing their 50th anniversary in 2011.

To view the PSA and take action, go to: www.youtube.com/amnestyusa

Click to see the complete list of 2010 Webby Winners.

Elias Arts, a company devoted to music composition, strategy and production, has been retained by TBWA/Chiat/Day to create and produce original music for a massive 2010 Winter Olympics Visa Campaign, entitled “Go World.” The announcement was made today by Ann Haugen, Executive Producer/GM, Elias Arts.

Elias Arts has been commissioned to create new music for nine broadcast spots, and five web films. The TV spots are entitled: “Alexi Salamone,” “Jamaican Bobsled,” “Jansen,” “Get Closer,” “Historical Promo,” “Tied,” “Mancuso,” “Jacobellis,” and “Zhang Dan & Zhang Hao.” The Web films are entitled: “Ryan,” “Alexi,” “Angela,” “Julia,” and “Lyndsey.” To view this work, please see: http://www.eliasarts.com/pr/2010winterolympics/

Regarding the new music, Elias Arts Creative Director Dave Gold said, “This campaign truly celebrates the individual stories, struggles and achievements of the individual Olympic athletes. Creating a diverse and celebratory soundtrack that still feels unified was quite a rewarding process.”

Elias Arts' client for the Visa campaign was TBWA/Chiat/Day’s Richard O’Neill, Producer & Head of Production, who said, “This project was an Olympian effort. Elias Arts definitely deserve the Gold for the job they did.”

Said TBWA/Chiat/Day Associate Creative Director Gage Clegg, “Working with Elias Arts has been incredible. This is the second Olympic Games campaign that we have teamed up with them on, and I can't imagine using anyone else. Their talent, creative energy, and willingness to do ‘whatever it takes,’ is one of the key reasons this campaign turned out the way it did.”

Click to check out the "Go World" website.

Elias Arts, a company devoted to music composition, strategy and production, has created and produced original music for five TV spots featured during yesterday's Super Bowl. The Super Bowl TV spots for which Elias Arts provided music were: Vizio Inc., Forge :: Anheuser-Busch, Fence :: Lexus, Lexus Hybrid :: Intel, Intel Generations :: Honda America, Loves. Click to see all the spots.

Click to read the full article at Shoot Magazine Online.

Elias Arts, a company devoted to music composition, strategy and production, has won a 2009 AICP "Best Music" Award for its original music on an Audi TV spot entitled "Living Room." The announcement was made today by Ann Haugen, Executive Producer/GM, Elias Arts.

The Audi spot "Living Room" (60-sec and 30-sec) was written by Elias Arts' Nate Morgan, and can all be seen at: http://www.eliasarts.com/pr/audilivingroom/

Elias Arts' client for the Audi spot was Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco. Craig Allen, Executive Producer of the spot for Venables Bell, originally said "Since there was no voice-over in this spot, we saw this as an opportunity to make the music as much of a star as the visuals. We wanted a track that played against type and would captivate the viewer with a unique sound. I've worked with Jonathan Elias for years, and knew he and his team would come up with a track that would be surprising, enchanting and memorable. They did not disappoint. As a testament to the power of this music, we have even had several consumer requests for this track and the name of the artists responsible for it!"

In "Living Room," the viewer watches through time lapse photography as a beautiful home's living room becomes more modernized with new furniture, accessories, and a new Audi in the driveway. The spot's slogan says, "The entirely new Audi A4. Progress is Beautiful."

Dave Gold, Elias Arts' Creative Director for the Audi spot, said, "For 'Living Room,' our goal was to combine orchestral instrumentation along with contemporary rhythms and voices, to create an organic/classical musical feel. We wanted to mirror, through music, the visuals, which were a depiction of standard luxury, which slowly evolves into a more contemporary, modern luxury. Starting with just piano and strings, portraying an older luxury feel, we expanded the music with more traditional elements, mixing, recording and filtering them, to ultimately deliver a more than traditional, yet still contemporary/modern feel—a musical evolution of luxury."

Click to read the full article at Shoot Magazine Online.

Obscure 1950s singer/songwriter Elizabeth “Connie” Converse disappeared in 1974, leaving behind a haunting body of recordings that would remain virtually unheard for the next 35 years. Today, newly launched Lau derette Recordings is proud to present How Sad, How Lovely, the first commercially available collection ever of Converse’s music. The 17-song album, re-mastered at Elias Arts studios, documents the work of this enigmatic artist during her time in New York in the 1950s.

Elias Arts’ Studio Operations Manager Dan Dzula and sound designer/engineer David Herman, were responsible for every aspect of the project. (Elias Arts is one of the leading original music production companies for advertising.)

Click to read the full article at ProSound News.

Fighting, an action drama starring Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard, gets an original score by newcomer David Wittman and veteran Jonathan Elias. Wittman is one of the composers and associate creative director at EliasArts, which is Jonathan Elias’ music production company. Elias has scored numerous big features, including last year’s Pathfinder and horror classics Vamp and Children of the Corn. Fighting, which is directed by Dito Montiel, takes place in New York’s underground street fighting circles.

An exotic and eclectic mix of advertising industry executives recently gathered at Jungle Island in Miami for the 2008 Addy Awards Bash. THE ADDY awards, billed as "the world's" largest and arguably toughest advertising competition€ yield over 60,000 entries but, it was no surprise (at least to us) when Avenida Acceso's work on Pontiac Esacpe was awarded a Golden Addy for sound design work. Avenida, Elias Arts Latino music company is proud to have collaborated with Accentmarketing/Miami on this spot. ¡Felicitaciones! to our very own Dean Hovey on his great sound design as well as Danny Decespedes, Producer and Juan Carlos Piedrahita, Creative Director from Accentmarketing.

Former Elias Arts CEO Martin Pazzani spoke at the 2008 TED Conference in Monterey, CA on The Power of Music. The TED Conference, an annual gathering of more than 1000 is committed to the sharing of ideas and innovative thinking on subjects including Technology, Entertainment and Design and features "inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers." Mr. Pazzani delivered a talk at TED University challenging the listener to fully appreciate the exceptional ability that music has to overcome language barriers, stimulate emotion, unite communities, serve as therapy to stroke victims and depression patients, and essentially capture the essence of a culture and/or civilization. Mr. Pazzani encouraged attendees to contemplate more actively, the true power of music and its potential to impact humanity in positive and memorable ways.

Kenny Segal, Elias composer, producer and DJ whose specialty is hip hop/electronic and experimental music, today launched Ken Can Cook, on indie label Decon/Project Blowed. According to Decon label manager, Laurent Masset, Kenny Segal is the latest producer talent to emerge from the Project Blowed scene, one of the most exciting breeding grounds on the West Coast. Featuring underground legends such as Abstract Rude, Aceyalone, Nocando, Busdriver, 2Mex and more there is a great deal of excitement surrounding the release. We at Decon have watched Kenny grow over the years and it is testament to the trust his fellow musicians have in his production skills that he has been able to surround himself with such an imposing cast of emcees for his debut album. There hasn't really been such a collaborative Project Blowed album in a few years and we are confident this will hit all the right notes with the fans all over the world. In addition to having just been named winner of the Urban Underground 2008 Battle Invatational, and the rigors surrounding the debut of his album, Kenny is collaborating on a daily basis with company founder Jonathan Elias on a variety of innovative in-house Elias projects that combine orchestral sound with an electronic/hip-hop/rap edge.

On January 17th, Elias' ID Group, headed by our very own Susan Aminoff, moderated an Audio Identity Panel entitled "Ears to You" at the Argyle Executive Forum in New York City. During what proved to be a highlight of the CMO leadership conference, Susan presented an overview of the benefits of Audio Identity, and then led a panel of experts in a discussion about leading edge applications of music and sound in branding. The panel included Elias' business partner in London, Julian Treasure (Founder of The Sound Agency and author of "Sound Business"), Peter Vaughn (VP of Branding at American Express), and Paul Greco (Executive Music Producer at Young & Rubicam). Outstanding discussion and debate in front of 250 Chief Marketing Officers and Executives punctuated the symposium as savvy minds were captivated by the continued growth and interest in the innovative area of Audio Branding.

Elias Arts has joined forces with Pangea Day organizers, in their call for amateur and professional filmmakers to submit short films that will make people from all over the world laugh, pause and think. With our 27-year track record of adding voice to film, television, advertising and brands we are huge believers in the fact that powerful images and themes deserve powerful music and sound to match. No surprise then that we’ve also created and donated a Pangea Day Music Library filled with cinematic music tracks created by our very own Jonathan Elias and our in-house composers. Filmmakers who register will be able to use any of our music from the library for their Pangea Day film entries. Finally, on May 10, 2008 we'll be hosting screenings at both our NYC and LA studios during which time we'll feature 30-40 of the Pangea Day film entries. The program will be broadcast live through the Internet, television, digital cinema, and mobile phones. To read more click here or contact pangeaday@eliasarts.com.