SONOTON founder and composer Gerhard Narholz to receive the first “Hall of Fame” Mark Award

16 September 2015 - Press release

• Award for Excellence within the Production Music Community
• First presentation of the Mark Awards by the Production Music Association in L.A.
• All information on Sonoton at www.sonoton.com

During the September 9th ceremonies, Gerhard Narholz, composer and founder of Sonoton Production Music, received the first “Hall of Fame” Mark Award. The newly established international award for production music was presented by the Production Music Association (PMA) in Los Angeles. Gerhard Narholz was honored with the “Hall of Fame” award for his life’s work.

“I was at the CEEMPC Congress in Istanbul when I got the news from Los Angeles. The surprise was perfect. I am very pleased about the award,” says Gerhard Narholz. „I’m accepting this in place for hundreds of composers, producers, musicians and worldwide publisher colleagues.” His son Gregor Narholz accepted the award on behalf of his father.

50 years ago, Rotheide and Gerhard Narholz established Sonoton as a company in Munich. Working as a songwriter for artists such as Petula Clark, Bill Ramsey and Heidi Brühl, and as a composer for German feature films and television series, Gerhard Narholz had the idea to compose and produce specific film and television music as background music. In order to employ other composers, he founded the SONOTON publishing house in 1965 and thus introduced and reinvented library music in Germany. Today, with more than 100,000 tracks from 16 labels, Sonoton is the largest independent production music library in the world. In many countries where library music was unknown, Sonoton did pioneering work through its local agents and set high standards in terms of quality, technology and service. 

Named in honor of the late Andy Mark, who was a music library owner and a founding member of the Production Music Association, the Mark Awards recognize the very best in production music in 17 categories. The non-profit organization is the leading advocate and voice of the production music community. The PMA has over 670 music publisher members, ranging from major labels to independent boutiques.

IMAGEM Production Music is the official representative of SONOTON in the United Kingdom.