Michael, Lolita and Kristopher have begun scoring the audio book production of Greg Weisman’s first novel, “Rain of the Ghosts.”

The story is set in the modern day on the Prospero Keys, a fictional group of islands on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle, known to its inhabitants as the “Ghost Keys.” A young girl, Rain Cacique, and her best friend Charlie Dauphin are enjoying the last days of summer break when strange things begin happening. Rain experiences visions of a dark man, encounters a mysterious stranger, and finds a bracelet seemingly with magical powers. She discovers she has to solve a mystery dating back to World War II, the first of several adventures she’ll have to embark on to complete a larger quest.

The audio play features the voice talents of many well-known actors, including Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, Ed Asner, Bryton James and Jacob Vargas, and others. A making-of video can be seen on YouTube here:

On Friday, Apr 3, Michael, Lolita and Kristopher joined composer Joel Douek and moderators Chandler Poling (Krakower-Poling PR) and Anne Cecere (BMI) on a panel entitled “Drawing Notes: Inside the Music of Animation,” presented by BMI. After a presentation of some of their main title themes, the panel discussed a wide range of topics, from the business of scoring animation to which superheroes are the most inspiring composing subjects! Following a Q&A with the audience, the composers met with fans outside the hall.

Michael, Lolita and Kristopher attended the 2015 Annie Awards, presented on Jan. 31, 2015 a UCLA’s Royce Hall.

The Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope with four days of events on April 24-27.  A special video montage of some of the stunning images captured by the telescope has been released on YouTube, and the accompanying music was written by Michael McCuistion for their Samuel Oschin Planetarium show, Time’s Up.

More information on Griffith Observatory’s four-day celebration of Hubble’s 25th birthday can be found here.

A LiveStream archive of the events can be seen at this URL.

DMP is thrilled that the album “Batman: The Animated Series Volume 3” has been nominated by the INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION for an award in the category of BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE OF AN EXISTING SCORE – COMPILATION. The 4-CD set is released on La-La Land Records and features music by Shirley Walker, Carlos Rodriguez, Peter Tomashek, Todd Hayen, Harvey R. Cohen, Michael McCuistion, Lars Clutterham, Stuart Balcomb, Mark Koval, Lolita Ritmanis, Richard Bronskill, Tamara Kline, Carl Johnson, Steve Chesne and James Stemple. The album is produced by John Takis and Neil S. Bulk and contains liner notes by John Takis. Album art direction by Dan Goldwasser.

DMP congratulates Michael McCuistion on today’s release of the “Time’s Up” soundtrack! His score features music from Griffith Observatory’s long-running Samuel Oschin Planetarium production; it is being released by La-La Land Records with an in-depth 12-page booklet describing both the show and the music. More information about the soundtrack is available here.

Also, the Samuel Oschin Planetarium has just reopened after an extensive renovation, and although “Time’s Up” is no longer being presented in the dome, you can still hear music from the soundtrack accompanying the rotunda’s Hubble Telescope exhibit just outside the remodeled Planetarium’s entrance. More information about the Planetarium can be found here, and ongoing updates about Griffith Observatory’s latest events are available via their twitter feed @AllSpaceCnsdrd.