Scoring The Queen's Gambit: Carlos Rafael Rivera on Film Composing (Episode 125)

Everything you do is an audition.

Carlos Rafael Rivera is an award-winning film composer and guitarist who scored, and was Emmy-nominated for, the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit. His concert work has been performed by artists and ensembles including Arturo Sandoval and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, he has served as composer-in-residence with the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and he teaches at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

In Episode 125 of The Career Musician, Nomad and Carlos talk about how a guitar player who grew up across Central America became a working film composer, the biggest lesson he learned from a legendary mentor, and why teaching opened the door to his career. Here is what stood out.

You are not your work

Carlos opened with something most musicians never say out loud. Even now, deep into a career, he does not feel confident while he is making the work. People call it impostor syndrome. The difference between him now and 20 years ago is that now he knows he will deliver.

"I know it's always going to be there when it needs to be there, which is the most important part of the job."

Carlos Rafael Rivera, 4:12

A visiting artist at his school once said something he needed to hear: you are not your work. We take criticism of the work personally because we identify with it. Collaborators who give blunt notes are often helping you, even when it stings. That is Humility and Objectivity from the ETHOS code, and Nomad called the candor a breath of fresh air.

A mentor who said yes, then a lesson in the pecking order

Carlos grew up in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama, crying at movie scores as a kid and learning guitar in his teens. He played in a cover band with his brother, then went to grad school for composition in LA. When he got a record deal, a professor told him to go do it, because you're only young once and school would still be there. The band did not work out. The same professor brought him back and pushed him through a master's and then a doctorate.

During that time, a mentorship program paired him with Randy Newman. He expected a 15-minute hang. It went two hours, and Randy started inviting him to scoring sessions. At one, Carlos watched a director give Randy a note on a cue. Randy said he could change it, went outside to work on the music, and came back with the fix.

"We're a service industry. We are serving the vision of the director, or whoever's paying your bills."

Carlos Rafael Rivera, 16:47

His takeaway when he started getting revisions himself: if Randy changes it, I better change it if I want to keep my job. That is Low maintenance / no drama, from the top of the business.

Encouragement is an oasis in the desert

Nomad pointed out how much one vote of confidence from someone who came before you can matter. Carlos agreed. He remembers a department chair hearing his first piano trio and saying, simply, "I like it." It was enough to keep him going.

External validation is the gas station in the desert, he said. Internal validation is the harder part. And the accolades do not change the internal journey, because life keeps happening anyway. He stays grounded by staying around students who believe they will change the world.

Write the demo like it's the final

Today a composer cannot play a piano sketch for a director and say "trust me." You have to produce your own demos. Carlos delivers detailed orchestral mock-ups to his orchestrators, and on The Queen's Gambit, when it looked like there might be no live orchestra sessions because of COVID, the team pushed the demos to a level where you could not tell the difference.

His tip for anyone using sample libraries: the better you understand what orchestral players can physically do, the more real your demo sounds. And clear the middle of the mix, because that is where the dialogue lives, and dialogue always wins.

He also shared a note from a sound designer that changed how he scores a scene: are you following the dialogue, preceding it, or trying to make us feel during it? Because it sounds like you're doing all three. Pick one. Nomad tied it back to one of his favorite lines: principles remain the same, methods change.

Teaching got him the gig

This is the story that ties it all together. Carlos was teaching at a conservatory, working as a TA, teaching privately and writing song critiques for extra money, when a writer-director looking for a guitar teacher answered his flyer at a music store in 2003. They became friends. For five years Carlos never asked for a hookup, because he valued the relationship and did not want to make it awkward.

Eventually the director brought him in, first offering temp music on a film, and that relationship led to the projects that built his scoring career, including The Queen's Gambit.

Nomad loved that Carlos shatters the old line that those who can't do, teach. Carlos is doing work at the top of the industry and teaching at the same time. That is Diversify or Die, and it is proof that everything you do is an audition, even a guitar lesson.

The takeaway

Asked about success and words of wisdom, Carlos talked about seeing things through. Try the thing. If it isn't in the cards, changing your path is an ending, but it is also an opportunity. The worst outcome is wishing you had tried.

"There is no path that's a straight line. Only looking back after years you can follow it, but it's a zigzag."

Carlos Rafael Rivera, 55:51

Expect to have multiple jobs. Embrace teaching and giving back. Be grateful you get to do music at all. Find Carlos at carlosrafaelrivera.com, and if you want a plan for building your own zigzag, grab the free plan of attack (POA) worksheet and the Get the Gig Guide.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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