Kris Bowers, Michael Abels – 20th Century Studios “Chevalier” (The Big Score)

“This is one of the greatest composers who was overlooked because he was black,” says Kris Bowers, composer of the original score for Searchlight Picture’s Chevalier, of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, the real-life illegitimate son of an African slave and a French Plantation owner. In this episode, we talk with Bowers and Michael Abels, who produced and arranged the on-camera music for the film, about why they consider Chevalier an 18th-century rock star, “the Prince of his day” and how calling Chevalier the Black Mozart misses the point of how influential the composer, violin virtuoso and conductor was before he was erased from history.