Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), a leading, global publisher, today announced that award-winning composer and musician Jerskin Fendrix has been signed to an exclusive, global publishing agreement through the company’s Classics & Screen division.
Following director Yorgos Lanthimos’ discovery of Fendrix’s debut solo album Winterreise, Lanthimos commissioned Fendrix to compose his first-ever film score for Lanthimos’ hugely successful film Poor Things. Fendrix’s critically acclaimed score earned him a multitude of awards, including Best Film Score at the 2024 Ivor Novello Awards and Best Original Score nominations at the BAFTAs and the 96th Academy Awards, making him the youngest composer to ever be nominated. He is signed on to score Lanthimos’ next two films, including Kinds of Kindness out June of this year.
Fendrix said: “I’m delighted to be working with Tash Baldwin, Anna Jaskiewicz and the team at UMPG Classics & Screen/Decca Publishing. I have great trust in their protection and dissemination of my work. To be signed alongside so many singular artists with UMPG is an honour, especially under such a pioneering and passionate champion of music as Jody Gerson.”
Natasha Baldwin, Executive Vice President of UMPG Classics & Screen, said: “Jerskin’s meteoric rise in the score composing world is extraordinary and he richly deserves all the accolades he has received so far. Jerskin has quietly developed an exciting artist/composer and songwriting style that caught our A&R team’s attention initially, so I am delighted that we are able to welcome Jerskin to a publishing company that truly supports and amplifies the whole breadth of what being a composer can mean.”
Anna Jaskiewicz, Creative Director of UMPG Classics & Screen added: “We are very honoured to be working with the inimitable genius that is Jerskin Fendrix. Jerskin is also a multi-talented singer-songwriter with a several artist projects in the pipeline due to be released in the coming years.”
In signing with the UMPG family, Fendrix joins the company’s prestigious global Classical and Screen composer roster of world-class composers includes Nicholas Britell, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Max Richter, Hildur Guanodottir, Danny Elfman, James Newton-Howard, David Lynch, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gustavo Santaolalla, and more. The division is home to iconic catalogs like the Italian catalogue - Ricordi, French catalogue - Durand/Salabert-Eschig, and Hungarian catalogue - EMB, which includes composers Puccini, Respighi, Poulenc, Messiaen, Haas, Xanakis, Kurtag, Kevin Puts, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon and more. The addition of multi-hyphenate Jerskin further cements UMPG's commitment to innovative and genre-bending composers.
Fendrix is represented by Alex Putman of untitled (recs).
Photo: L-R: Natasha Baldwin, EVP, UMPG Classics & Screen; Jerskin Fendrix; Jody Gerson, UMPG Chairman & CEO / Credit: Melissa Svensen